Curiosities
True stories, old legends and little-known facts about Santa Clara-a-Nova and the Almodôvar municipality. Every answer rests on historical, archaeological or official sources.
Did you know...?
Why is the village called Santa Clara-a-Nova?
The village and its parish are dedicated to Saint Clare of Assisi (Santa Clara de Assis), founder of the Poor Clares. Her cult spread through Portugal via Poor Clare convents founded between the 13th and 17th centuries, in places like Coimbra, Santarém and Vila do Conde. The "a-Nova" (the New) distinguishes the village from Santa Clara-a-Velha (the Old), in the neighbouring municipality of Odemira, whose church is dedicated to the same saint.
What links the village's patron saint to television?
Saint Clare of Assisi is the official patron saint of television. Pope Pius XII proclaimed her so on 14 February 1958, based on the account that a year before her death, too ill to leave her cell, Clare watched Mass projected on the wall of her room. A website dedicated to Santa Clara-a-Nova is in good company.
Why is the village feast held on 12 August?
In the current liturgical calendar, Saint Clare's feast day is 11 August, the day she died in 1253. Before the 1970 reform, however, it was celebrated on 12 August, and the village feast preserves that older date. Local tradition kept the calendar the Church itself later changed.
What is the "failed Roman town" next to the village?
Archaeologists Amílcar Guerra and Carlos Fabião describe Mesas do Castelinho as an example of "failed urbanism" in southern Roman Lusitania: a settlement with a careful Roman Republican orthogonal plan that never became a true Roman town. When the new Roman road network was laid out, it bypassed the settlement, which was abandoned in the early 2nd century AD. A 2,000-year-old lesson about what happens when you are left off the map.
How much of the archaeological site has been excavated?
About 10%. Despite more than three decades of annual campaigns by the University of Lisbon team (UNIARQ), most of Mesas do Castelinho is still literally underground. Most of the story remains untold.
What did people eat at Mesas do Castelinho over 2,000 years ago?
Archaeobotanical analysis identified barley, wheat and figs among the foods eaten by the Iron Age inhabitants. The Mediterranean diet was here long before it had a name.
Who is the Lizard-Man?
According to the legend recorded by the Almodôvar municipality, an old woman was invited into an enchanted house full of riches at Monte Novo do Castelinho, guarded by a creature half man, half lizard, on the condition that she never invoke God's name. When she made the sign of the cross, everything vanished. Tradition says the Lizard-Man still guards the site today, hidden even from the archaeologists.
Did the treasure legend really cause the destruction of 1986?
In late 1986, part of the Mesas do Castelinho ruins was destroyed with heavy machinery. According to the Almodôvar municipality, those responsible were hunting for the treasures of the Lizard-Man legend. That destruction triggered emergency excavations and, from 1988-1989, the systematic research project that revealed the site's importance. The legend accidentally launched the monument's scientific career.
What is the script no one can read?
The Southwest Script (Escrita do Sudoeste), found on stelae in the Almodôvar municipality, is considered the oldest writing system in the Iberian Peninsula and remains undeciphered. At Mesas do Castelinho, a funerary stela bearing this script was discovered on 5 September 2008 in the Roman-era quarter. The Museum of the Southwest Script (MESA) in Almodôvar is the reference museum for this mysterious writing.
What is the terracotta head "between two worlds"?
Among the finds from Mesas do Castelinho is a terracotta human head, from an Iron Age context, that blends Mediterranean iconography (a bald head and shaved face) with round frontal eyes in the Celtic style. It is on display at MESA in Almodôvar, a witness to the crossing of cultures in this territory.
Where does the Miners' Hymn sung at Neves-Corvo come from?
The hymn sung by the mining communities of Baixo Alentejo originates in the Asturian song "Nel Pozu María Luisa" (also known as "Santa Bárbara bendita"), which mourns a fatal accident in an Asturian coal mine. The miners of Aljustrel adapted it into Portuguese, and the tradition reached Neves-Corvo, where it is still sung on the miners' vigil day. Local memory also circulates a version claiming the melody is Chilean, and that dispute has become part of the song's own story.
Did the parish disappear and come back?
Yes. In 2013, a national administrative reform merged Santa Clara-a-Nova with Gomes Aires into a single union of parishes. Law 25-A/2025 of 13 March restored the two separate parishes, effective from the swearing-in of the officials elected in the October 2025 local elections. Twelve years later, Santa Clara-a-Nova is a parish of its own again.