The Lizard-Man
At Mesas do Castelinho, they say, there is a treasure. And there is a guardian. This is the legend told for generations in Santa Clara-a-Nova and Almodôvar, in the version recorded by the Almodôvar municipality. It is also the story of how a legend truly changed the fate of an archaeological site.
The enchanted house
The legend, as it is told
The story goes that at Monte Novo do Castelinho, an old woman was one day invited into an enchanted house. Inside, riches awaited her such as she had never seen.
The house had a guardian: a creature half man, half lizard. And the invitation came with a single condition: inside that house, the woman could never invoke God's name.
Faced with such wonder, the woman did what habit demanded: she made the sign of the cross. In that instant, everything vanished. The house, the treasures and the Lizard-Man himself disappeared, as if they had never existed.
Tradition says the Lizard-Man is still there today, guarding the site and its riches, hidden from everyone. Even from the archaeologists.
When the legend made history
The treasure, the 1986 destruction and the science
The legend would be just a fine fireside tale if it had not had very real consequences.
In late 1986, part of the archaeological remains of Mesas do Castelinho was destroyed with heavy machinery, mostly on the upper platform and the eastern slope. According to the Almodôvar municipality, those responsible were treasure hunters: they were after the riches of the Lizard-Man.
The treasure never turned up. But the destruction alerted the authorities and triggered emergency excavations, followed, from 1989 onwards, by systematic scientific campaigns of the University of Lisbon that continue to this day. Without meaning to, the legend launched the scientific career of one of the most important archaeological sites in southern Portugal.
And it turns out the treasure did exist: it is the ruins, the stela bearing the Southwest Script and everything still waiting to be excavated. As for the Lizard-Man, he remains to be found.
Version of the legend recorded by the Almodôvar municipality (cm-almodovar.pt).
Keep exploring
Mesas do Castelinho
The archaeological site the Lizard-Man guards: a fortified settlement founded at the end of the 5th century BC, 2 km from Santa Clara-a-Nova.
Visit the siteThe Southwest Script
The hill's other mystery: the oldest writing in the Iberian Peninsula, found on a stela at Mesas do Castelinho, remains undeciphered.
Discover the script