Located in the parish of Glória and Vera Cruz, municipality of Aveiro, central Portugal
Beira Mar was originally called "Vila Nova" because it is located outside the medieval walls that surrounded Aveiro, south of the Canal Central, this neighborhood is delimited to the south by this canal, to the west by the Canal das Pirâmides, to the north by the Canal de São Roque and to the east by the streets of José Estevão and Manuel Luiz Nogueira.
The residents of this neighborhood are traditionally called cagaréus, while those living south of the Central Canal are called ceboleiros. This division, traditionally formalized by the wall, also gave rise to some rivalries between the inhabitants of these areas.
Beira Mar is one of the city's main tourist areas, encompassing important tourist attractions such as Jardim do Rossio or Praça do Peixe.
The São Gonçalinho Chapel located in the center of the neighborhood is the stage for the city's main and traditional festivities, the Festas in Honor of São Gonçalinho, some of the best examples of Art Nouveau in the region such as the Casa do Major Pessoa (currently the Art Nouveau Museum).
The “Ponte do Laço” (the name comes from the fact that its shape resembles a noose or the infinity symbol), next to one of the main urban channels of the ria, the São Roque channel, one of the hallmarks of the Beira Mar neighborhood and which became an important shipbuilding space during the Age of Discoveries.
On the São Roque canal is one of the most emblematic bridges in Aveiro, shaped like an arch, decorated with balusters and the city's coat of arms. salt pan with this name.
At the beginning of Rua Antónia Rodrigues, a unique figure from Aveiro known as “Antónia de Aveiro” is presented and the toponymic plaque says that “the famous Antónia de Aveiro, running away from home at the age of 15, was dressed as a man, gloriously fighting the Moors in Mazagão where she performed wonders of valor, preserving for years with her virtue, the secret of her sex”.
Antónia Rodrigues (born in 1580) was, for a large part of her life, António Rodrigues and only stopped being so when they wanted him to marry the daughter of a nobleman and then she was forced to reveal that she was a woman before leading the group, through narrow streets, lined with tile-covered houses to the Capela de São Bartolomeu, a small place of worship (dating from 1568) that only opens to the public once a year (August 24th, day dedicated to that saint) and where the explanation for Aveiro being so given to strong winds “lives”.
The oldest people say that when there is a lot of wind it is because the door of the Chapel of Saint Bartholomew is open, since there is the figure of a devil chained to the saint who was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, according to legend he had exorcist powers, a kind of cooperation with the devil, and is highly esteemed by the inhabitants of this neighborhood.
Some of the rituals that the people of Beira Mar continue to follow with precept, for believers there is just one example: when someone is robbed, they must go at midnight and knock on the door of the little chapel and say three times “Saint Bartholomew, let go of your boy, let him make war on what is mine” and leave a black coin under the door.
On this tour through the picturesque neighborhood of Beira Mar, visitors are also taken to another famous place of worship in the city: the Chapel of São Gonçalinho, the patron saint of the neighborhood and which every year at the beginning of January serves as an excuse for a very unique party.
At the top of the hexagonal-shaped chapel (which was built in 1714), thousands of cavacas (a very hard sweet bread) are thrown and picked up by the people who gather in the square, a ritual that, according to the locals, serves to pay the promises to the “saint”, in reality it is blessed (but don't dare call it that among the people of the neighborhood) that the people of Aveiro treat as their “boy”.
São Gonçalo de Amarante was not born here and there is also no evidence that he passed through Aveiro, but many people from Aveiro want to believe so, assuming that he visited the islands where isolated patients were found and gave them bread so that they would not go hungry.
São Gonçalo is cherished in a very special way in these parts and the traditional festivities are there to prove it, such as the ritual of launching the cavacas, the case of the “Dança dos Mancos” which takes place late at night inside the chapel in the greatest of secrets.
Visitors can also see the Casa Major Pessoa housed in a building that houses the city's Art Nouveau Museum, which was built in 1904 by a Brazilian bourgeois named Mário Pessoa.
In Rossio it is possible to watch the movement of moliceiros along the central channel of the estuary and the hustle and bustle of tourists arriving and departing, and you can also visit the Church of Santo António, Parque da Cidade and the Alboi neighborhood.
The residents of this neighborhood are traditionally called cagaréus, while those living south of the Central Canal are called ceboleiros. This division, traditionally formalized by the wall, also gave rise to some rivalries between the inhabitants of these areas.
Beira Mar is one of the city's main tourist areas, encompassing important tourist attractions such as Jardim do Rossio or Praça do Peixe.
The São Gonçalinho Chapel located in the center of the neighborhood is the stage for the city's main and traditional festivities, the Festas in Honor of São Gonçalinho, some of the best examples of Art Nouveau in the region such as the Casa do Major Pessoa (currently the Art Nouveau Museum).
The “Ponte do Laço” (the name comes from the fact that its shape resembles a noose or the infinity symbol), next to one of the main urban channels of the ria, the São Roque channel, one of the hallmarks of the Beira Mar neighborhood and which became an important shipbuilding space during the Age of Discoveries.
On the São Roque canal is one of the most emblematic bridges in Aveiro, shaped like an arch, decorated with balusters and the city's coat of arms. salt pan with this name.
At the beginning of Rua Antónia Rodrigues, a unique figure from Aveiro known as “Antónia de Aveiro” is presented and the toponymic plaque says that “the famous Antónia de Aveiro, running away from home at the age of 15, was dressed as a man, gloriously fighting the Moors in Mazagão where she performed wonders of valor, preserving for years with her virtue, the secret of her sex”.
Antónia Rodrigues (born in 1580) was, for a large part of her life, António Rodrigues and only stopped being so when they wanted him to marry the daughter of a nobleman and then she was forced to reveal that she was a woman before leading the group, through narrow streets, lined with tile-covered houses to the Capela de São Bartolomeu, a small place of worship (dating from 1568) that only opens to the public once a year (August 24th, day dedicated to that saint) and where the explanation for Aveiro being so given to strong winds “lives”.
The oldest people say that when there is a lot of wind it is because the door of the Chapel of Saint Bartholomew is open, since there is the figure of a devil chained to the saint who was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, according to legend he had exorcist powers, a kind of cooperation with the devil, and is highly esteemed by the inhabitants of this neighborhood.
Some of the rituals that the people of Beira Mar continue to follow with precept, for believers there is just one example: when someone is robbed, they must go at midnight and knock on the door of the little chapel and say three times “Saint Bartholomew, let go of your boy, let him make war on what is mine” and leave a black coin under the door.
On this tour through the picturesque neighborhood of Beira Mar, visitors are also taken to another famous place of worship in the city: the Chapel of São Gonçalinho, the patron saint of the neighborhood and which every year at the beginning of January serves as an excuse for a very unique party.
At the top of the hexagonal-shaped chapel (which was built in 1714), thousands of cavacas (a very hard sweet bread) are thrown and picked up by the people who gather in the square, a ritual that, according to the locals, serves to pay the promises to the “saint”, in reality it is blessed (but don't dare call it that among the people of the neighborhood) that the people of Aveiro treat as their “boy”.
São Gonçalo de Amarante was not born here and there is also no evidence that he passed through Aveiro, but many people from Aveiro want to believe so, assuming that he visited the islands where isolated patients were found and gave them bread so that they would not go hungry.
São Gonçalo is cherished in a very special way in these parts and the traditional festivities are there to prove it, such as the ritual of launching the cavacas, the case of the “Dança dos Mancos” which takes place late at night inside the chapel in the greatest of secrets.
Visitors can also see the Casa Major Pessoa housed in a building that houses the city's Art Nouveau Museum, which was built in 1904 by a Brazilian bourgeois named Mário Pessoa.
In Rossio it is possible to watch the movement of moliceiros along the central channel of the estuary and the hustle and bustle of tourists arriving and departing, and you can also visit the Church of Santo António, Parque da Cidade and the Alboi neighborhood.
