A millenary village of Ribeira Lima: the sacralization of its parish space

Abstract

The Portuguese parishes of Entre-Douro-e-Minho were structured and individualized at the dawn of the II millennium. They usually took a saint as their patron and built a church that was sacred by the bishop or by a figure of the church at their behest. The first way to sacralize the parochial territory was to build a church with a cruciform format, the second was to delimit the parochial space by placing crosses on rocks and landmarks. In this way it was prevented that evil spirits came to make the poor peasants' lives miserable and retaliate for their adherence to the Christian faith with the spread of plagues, storms, death of animals and destruction of crops. To increase the protection within the parish, chapels, cruises and souls were also built. The doors of the houses, the mills and the granaries were protected with cruciforms and white paintings, symbol of purity. Finally, they took the bell as a symbol of union among the parishioners and as a voice that is able to dispel the evils that travel with the darkness of the night.