Central Way

José Saramago, after the journey that gave origin to the work Viagem a Portugal, said that “the end of one trip is just the beginning of another. It is necessary to see what has not been seen, to see again what has already been seen, to see in spring what was seen in summer, to see by day what was seen at night … We must return to the steps that were given, to repeat them, and to chart new ways”. He would speak in a figurative sense and it would seem to refer to the Ways of Santiago. There are no records that he has followed it but that, coincidentally, the Way crosses Azinhaga, the village where José Saramago was born in 1922.

Azinhaga

“In the midst of night peace, among the high branches of the tree, a star appeared to me, and then, slowly, it was hiding behind a leaf, and, while I was looking in another direction, like a river running silently through the sky concave, came the opalescent clarity of the Milky Way, the Way of Santiago, as we still called it in the village.”Signed by the sculptor Arnaldo Ferreira and dated 2009, the bronze statue of José Saramago evokes the figure of the only Portuguese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1998), who was born in Azinhaga and spent part of his youth there. In the central square of the village, José Saramago (1922-2010) is sitting on a bench, as if observing the life of the locality that unfolds under his watchful eye.The passage through Azinhaga can be enriched with the visit to the ruins of Capela de S. Sebastião. In 1570, raging the plague, the inhabitants of Azinhaga erected a chapel dedicated to São Sebastião, patron saint against that epidemic. Much modified in the 19th century, it is currently in ruins. The Capela de São José, dated from the 17th century, has the peculiarity of keeping its original bell, bearing the name of its promoter (Gaspar Serrão, 1634), possibly an important inhabitant of Azinhaga who lived in the palace fronting the temple, known today as Solar da Família Serrão de Faria. Also, the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, the main church of Azinhaga, is a place of obligatory visit. Documented since 1297, the church still preserves the medieval coverings of the apse. At the end of the 16th century, the temple was substantially transformed by the Order of Christ, who established a commendation here. The building has gained monumentality, as well as the elegant interior with thin arches in the naves and a coffered cover in the main chapel. Until the end of the 18th century, the church was enriched with artistic and devotional elements, of which the polychrome carved altarpieces stand out.

Chapel of São José – Azinhaga