As Romarias no Planalto Beirão, desde os inícios do Século XVIII

Abstract

In this article, we start by placing ourselves at the beginning of the 18th century and mapping, in the so called Planalto Beirão (the Beira Plateau), the network of shrines and other types of temples dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in Her multiple denominations, collected from Santuário Mariano by Agostinho de Santa Maria. This author, in three separate volumes, made an inventory of the shrines located in the three dioceses which, at that time, (as well as today, with some adjustments of their limits), were situated in the mentioned geographical area. Following the alphabetical order, we have the dioceses of Cairnbra, Guarda and Viseu. This was the author's only organizational criterion. Being fully aware that we can incur some inaccuracy, given the administrative division of the municipalities of that time and nowadays, we tried to assign to each temple (shrine, chapel, small chapel or parish church) that housed the image of the Virgin Mary, a place within the jurisdiction of each of the existing 17 municipalities of the Beira Plateau. We also approached - in the past and nowadays - non-Marian worship, the symbiosis between the sacred and the profane and the main shrines and pilgrimages in honour and glory of the Lord, as well as the meaning of prayers and the fulfilment of promises that believers made to the saints oftheir devotion.