Chaves - Largo do Terreiro de Cavalaria (Jardim do Bacalhau)

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog :-)

Largo do Terreiro de Cavalaria (Jardim do Bacalhau).jpg

I'm going to finish telling you the story of this visit to Chaves in the same way I started it.
As soon as we arrived, we parked the car in Jardim do Bacalhau or Largo do Terreiro de Cavalaria. The locals don't like the first name and I'll explain why. Until the beginning of the 80s, a military building was located in this location, which also served as the headquarters of the cavalry weapon, including the yard. Hence the origin of the name Terreiro de Cavalaria. Later, a garden was built next to the building, the shape of which resembled the shape of a dried cod. As a result, the local community popularly began to refer to it as Jardim do Bacalhau, a name that became firmly established in the region. This nickname became so popular that, to this day, the place is known by this name, although officially it is called Terreiro de Cavalaria.

Here we found several people talking sitting on benches in the garden where there is a fountain and a statue of a woman with two children on her lap. This is the statue of Saint Maria Mantela and the legend goes like this: "After having had seven children, Maria Mantela had six thrown into the river, as at that time a woman who had more than one baby was considered unfaithful.
Her husband found out, rescued the six boys and sent them to six villages in the county to be raised. Ten years later he introduced them to his mother. It is also said that the seven became priests in seven villages in the municipality."

We then follow the first alleys where what stands out are the facades of the houses and their balconies. I don't think I've ever walked for as long looking up as I did here. In fact, the terraces have their own charm and the way they are decorated does not go unnoticed.
Almost all of the electricity panels are decorated with paintings that blend in with the color of the houses.

Further ahead we saw a fruit store and its facade was decorated with swallows. Next door we have the Fonte das Três Bicas which, as you can see, has three spouts and three tanks but is not in operation.
It was only halfway through our stay here that we realized that all the places are relatively close to each other. If we were alone, we could have covered the entire city without using the car once. Still, we covered a good few kilometers with our little travel companion.

We hope that she will remember these visits that from time to time become boring because we walk a lot and the car journey takes a long time and because it is always time to have a snack, it is either cold or hot, or we always go to see castles and ruins :-) I know that no matter how dry it seems now, one day you will look at these posts and realize how much you had the privilege of seeing and getting to know your parents. We hope that one day you can do the same if you so choose.