Original legend from Portugal Serra da estrela national park. included in Erasmus+ KA229 project "Green education in green environment"

1. “Folgosinho” Legend
During a pursuit of the Moors, D. Afonso Henriques and his troops stopped to rest in
Serra da Estrela, and camped at the foot of the mountain. It was very hot, and even
during the night the troops could not rest, increasing their fatigue, as well as the king's.
Thus, Pêro Vasques, advisor to Afonso Henriques, captured a young girl in the heat of
the night, being considered by him a Moorish spy.
However, when questioned by D. Afonso Henriques, the girl reveals that she is just a girl
from the top of the mountains “in that land near the sky”, and that she had heard about
the despair of the king and his men and that she wants to take them to their land at the
top of the mountain, where they could have pure and fresh air.
The girl added that her father, and her father's father before him, said that their land
was where Viriato was born.
Upon hearing this D. Afonso Henriques was curious to know the land where Viriato had
been born, and against the advice of Pêro Vasques, who still distrusted the girl, he
ordered them to follow her at dawn.
They did so, traveling a long way to the top of the mountain, still taking the tiredness of
the king and his companions and the distrust of Pêro Vasques.
However, they eventually arrive at the girl's land, and are surprised by its beauty, in
addition to the pure air they breathed.
However, thirst took over the king and his troops, due to the heat and fatigue on the
climb to the top of the mountain. But the girl assured that there would be water, and
then she took the king to a boulder.
With the king next to the rock, the girl falls to her knees, and begins to chant a mystical
incantation towards the granite rock of the rock, crying “Here lived the great
Viriato…Here the King of Portugal will quench the thirst!”.
The girl's enchantment seems to work, and a wonderful, fresh and crystalline water from
the mountains begins to flow from the boulder as if by miracle, restoring vitality to the
king and his troops as they drink from it.

2. It is in this context that the king utters the words that are said to have given rise to the
name of the village:
“Let's rest here… and let's all take a breath of air!”, referring not only to the breath
offered by the mountain air, but also to the glow offered by that wonderful water.
The legend then says that immediately after this blessed breath and splendor, D. Afonso
Henriques and his troops resumed their fight with the Moors with redoubled strength
and energy, and that many successes were had in this demand that day.
The girl, in turn, stayed behind in her land, and in the form of prophecy, uttered other
words that would also be marked in the legendary history of the village:
“Water from the mountains, soldier for war… Folgosinho! Folgosinho! Folgosinho !”.
It is said that the girl was, in fact, an “Earth or Sky figure”, perhaps evoking an ancestral
origin of the girl as a pagan goddess.
Mangualde/Portugal