Santa Maria da Feira starts today the 22nd Medieval Journey
The 22nd edition of the historic recreation that takes to Santa Maria da Feira hundreds of animation proposals inspired by the Middle Ages starts today and until August 12 should receive 700,000 visitors, estimates the organization.
Daily, the Medieval Journey in Terra de Santa Maria will have more than 2,000 people working on a pedestrian perimeter spread over 33 hectares in the center of the city.
This space will be transformed with dozens of thematic areas related to customs and products of the Middle Ages, hundreds of taverns and stalls, and almost 1,700 proposals of animation throughout the 12 days of the event, based on several presentations of 67 different shows in every day.
The historical period to be portrayed this year is the reign of D. Pedro I, which was marked by the posthumous coronation of Ines de Castro as queen and deserved the monarch the epithet of The Cruel and also The Punisher.
The spectacles produced specifically for the Journey will thus seek to portray the monarch’s different facets, which “promoted laws that encouraged maritime commerce, created new municipalities, regulated agriculture and pasture” and, in the context of international politics, still managed to maintain “good relations with Castile, despite the difficult game of internal strife in the neighboring kingdom. ”
The organization of the event reminds D. Pedro as responsible for “a policy of affirmation of the State before the Church” and adds: “Almost always identified by the episode of revenge against the executioners of Inês de Castro, reigned only ten years, leading Portugal to financial prosperity and peace with the neighboring kingdoms. ”
In the 12-day Medieval Journey program, 1.3 million euros were invested, but based on the sale of entrance tickets and also using complementary products such as experiences, paid theme areas and merchandising, the organization guarantees that the event is today “100% self-sustaining”
