The mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, carried out the signing of the twinning protocol with the president of the City Council of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro, in addition to the exchange of institutional gifts, which staged the union with the city of Nazaré in Portugal, once the City Council of Nazaré invited Teguise to join the cooperation protocol to declare the cult of Our Lady of Nazareth as an Intangible Heritage of UNESCO.
In addition to the signing, this visit has served to strengthen relations between the people of Teguise, Nazareth, and the Portuguese town, which share many points in common as a tourist municipality, both in population density and in its attractiveness for sports and also in gastronomy and culinary traditions. This meeting has also served for both towns that look to the Atlantic to lay new foundations for economic and tourist promotion, and to join forces to safeguard the rich heritage that unites them.
It should be remembered that the town of Nazareth was founded by the Portuguese merchant, Antonio de Sosa, in the 17th century, and therefore has Our Lady of Nazareth as its patron saint. After several conversations between the City Council of Teguise, through the official chronicler, Francisco Hernández, a response was received from Manuel Sequeira, vice-president of the Municipal Chamber of Nazaré, and Nereida González, representative of the Nazareth neighborhood association, who have been the promoters of the twinning, which materialized this weekend with the visit of a Teguise delegation, made up of the mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, the official chronicler, Francisco Hernández, and the councilor of Archives and Heritage, Sara Bermúdez, who had the opportunity to visit the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré and its respective Museum, together with the President of the Brotherhood of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, in addition to the fort of São Miguel Arcanjo (the place of the largest waves in the world). And to continue strengthening ties between both towns, the visit of the representatives of Nazaré is scheduled for the month of March to seal said agreement in Teguise.
About Nazaré, Portugal
This refuge, located 120 km from Lisbon, stands out for its important natural, historical and cultural legacy. It is made up of three distinct areas that give it unique characteristics: the Site, the Pederneira and the Beach. The Site is a secular place of pilgrimage and worship. The journey from the beach to the place of worship can be done through the well-known and centuries-old Elevator [lift], inaugurated in 1889, which calmly leads us to one of the most emblematic places in Nazaré: the hermitage of Memory. Legend has it that there, in 1182, D. Fuas Roupinho invoked Our Lady of Nazareth, who prevented him from falling off the high cliff. The hermitage was built, then, as a way to honor him.
In the Suberco Viewpoint you can see the mark left by the horseshoe of his horse and it is, from there, where you have the best view of the beach (to the south), the town and the Atlantic Ocean.
On the beach of Nazaré, in addition to walks along the seashore and sunbathing, you can walk along the pier and enjoy the deeply rooted cultural component, which ranges from typical costumes, through the art of sewing nets, to preparing bait or drying fish on the sand.
At the opposite end is Pederneira, one of the most important maritime ports of the Alcobaça estates between the 12th and 16th centuries.
The beaches of Nazaré are an excellent destination for lovers of water and extreme sports such as bodyboarding, surfing, windsurfing, sailing, diving, kitesurfing, paragliding, hang gliding and even climbing; being in the windy North Beach where, today, important surfing championships take place and where, almost always, the ideal conditions are met for this purpose.
It was precisely on the North Beach – in Canhão da Nazaré – where the Hawaiian surfer Garret McNamara surfed a wave of 30 meters, the largest ever surfed in the world, entering directly into the Guinness Book of Records.
