A young girl living in a village located around the castle of Almourol was admiring of the small castle of Almourol, and she saw in this little jewel lost in the middle of the Tagus, something inexplicable favoring luck.
The magic of Almourol
On many occasions, in fact, she had noticed that by going beforehand to the banks of the Tagus in order to contemplate the castle for a few minutes while thinking of a wish, her desires then seemed to be favored and for the most part came true in a positive way. .
She had certainly not been demanding in her wishes and never asked for anything truly impossible, but these little things of daily life that she wanted to see evolve in a positive way went rather well when she first took worth going to contemplate the castle for around ten minutes. We hold on to what we can.
The castle therefore fascinated her to the point that she went whenever she could to the banks of the Tagus, and spent long moments contemplating the little jewel of stones containing a part of the History of Portugal.
One evening, while she remained peacefully on one of the banks of the Tagus contemplating Almourol for about ten minutes, an old lady seeming to come from nowhere approached her. And without the young girl being able to utter a single word, the new arrival threw a sudden sentence at her: “Why do you desire him with green eyes?
Taken aback, the young girl immediately understood that the old lady was reading her thoughts, since, while looking towards the castle, she was imagining the outlines of her future lover, and she imagined him having green eyes. Miracle ? Clairvoyant?
No, replied the old lady whose features reflecting enormous wisdom were reassuring. No, I'm not clairvoyant, my little girl. I simply inherited “the magic of Almourol”. You too will inherit it one day if you continue to watch it as much and as often. This is not a bad thing, but the magic of Almourol allows you to see the future, and this is not necessarily desirable, because the magic of knowledge reduces the spice of life. It is better to rely on chance and the normal course of things rather than on certainty perceived in advance.
The young girl seemed to have only half understood the words of her interlocutor, but had nevertheless understood that Almourol could bring her a vision of the future. At her age, however, was she going to “swallow” that? However, she said to herself internally.
- If I inherited Almourol's magic, could I know my future? she asked the old lady.
- Of course, my little girl. But don't think that it's necessarily a good thing to know everything in advance.
- Yet I would dream of it, replied the young girl, who deep down only asked to one day possess the power allowing her to see the future as clearly as she sees the castle of Almourol at this precise moment. What a godsend that would be...
- I suspect it. The old lady said, obviously reading minds. All humans would dream of that. But believe me, don't try to possess the magic of Almourol, and prefer to let life take its course.
Good, she adds immediately. I realize that whatever I tell you, you will seek to acquire its magic and you will do as you please. I see that your greatest desire right now is to know if one day you will have a lover, a real one, and what he will look like? That's right ? She finally asked.
- Yes, that's exactly what the young girl answers. Deep down, I don't care a bit about the future. But what I would like is only to know in advance what my lover will be like, the man who will truly love me and with whom I can share my life.
- So be it, replied the lady straight away. And if I allowed you to know this aspect of your future, would you promise me to definitively give up acquiring the magic of Almourol?
- Promised in advance! The young woman said, with an air of self-confidence. Life is long and I think you are right to say that it is better not to know its path in advance. But regarding my future Love, yes, I would really dream of knowing.
- Alright. In this case I will explain to you how to go about it and allow you to know what you want to know, and nothing but that. But tell yourself that for your own good, you must never betray the promise you just made to me. From now on, you will only come back to see the castle for your pleasure, or for it to bring you luck, but never to try to acquire its magic. Is that promised?
- Promised and promised again! The young girl replies with a serious look. I have never broken a promise and I intend to maintain this course of action throughout my life. And anyway I can admit to you that I didn't even know that Almourol could transmit the magic allowing you to see the future. I simply looked at it from time to time because I noticed that it brings good luck when you come to look at it.
- Perfect. Answers the old lady. Know that it is only for your own good that I ask you this. Almourol brings good luck when you look at it, it's true and I'm probably the only one who knows why. But I know from experience that acquiring your magic, and therefore knowing the future in advance, actually brings nothing and does not make you happier. So, since you agree, listen to me carefully…
Preferably choose an evening when the weather will be good, cross the Tagus and go to the castle grounds just before the sun sets. Then enter through the front door, thinking very hard about what you want to know.
Then climb slowly to the top of the dungeon and wait for the precise moment when the sun sets. Open your eyes wide, and the truth will emerge. Don't ask me more because you will understand for yourself.
The young girl followed the old lady's advice and went to the castle a few days later. She was jubilant while intrigued by what might await her. What will she see? What will the near future hold for him? Near or far, by the way? How to know ? What would she learn? Could there be a special technique to “glimpse” what she is looking for?
All these questions allowed him to climb to the top of the dungeon without even realizing it. Once at the top, she began to look around, opening her eyes wide. The sun was going to fall soon and there was no question of missing "the truth", her truth, or at least the answer she was waiting for concerning her romantic future.
The sun was setting over the immensity of the Tagus, bringing to the sky a reddish flamboyance of breathtaking beauty. It was as if the Princes of Infinity had given themselves the word to construct an unreal setting precisely that evening. The context and the surrounding landscape seemed imbued with magic. The colors danced around this green valley of the Tagus.
The young girl was more and more feverish and watched for the exact moment when the sun would deign to put on her pajamas. Her magnificent eyes had matched the hue of the clouds, now painted by the intrepid brushes of the rays of the setting sun.
Suddenly, she feels curiously weakening. Her legs no longer seem to be able to hold her upright. She clings to the walls around her to keep herself upright. The sun fades as she inexplicably sways.
What's happening to him ? This moment of great weakness is very poorly chosen, she thinks, thanks to her cerebral resources which have now become very fragile. She understands nothing of what is happening to her but is still aware that she is missing the crucial moment, the fabulous moment when the truth will emerge from who knows where...
She is now struggling to keep her eyes open but her legs can no longer hold her. She places one knee on the ground, and the second is quick to follow the movement. His vision fades as the seconds pass. She capitulates and collapses on the ground, inert.
- What is your name ? What happened to you ?
The young girl lying on the ground opens her eyes slowly as she hears this man's voice whispering these questions to her.
What is happening to me? she asked. Where am I ? Who are you ?
- I found you there, inert. replies the young man, touched by the context, but reassured about the state of the young girl, who little by little regains all of her senses, to the point that she decides to get up suddenly, but it takes a toll on her because her strength is not yet intact, she finds herself in the arms of the young man who fortunately took pains to help her.
A shared burst of laughter tore the sky and this magnificent green valley of the Tagus now plunged into near darkness, given that the sun had the luxury of setting.
The young man explains to him the reason for his presence in Almourol, "finally", he says, "very useful in view of the circumstances".
Consistency! exclaims the young girl. Constancy is a word that resonates like a smile in my head. I love the village of Constance (Constancia). It is a village conducive to love. There seems to be plenitude and serenity there. I'm from there. She adds with a smile “it seems like I’m talking about a distant place when Constancia is only a few kilometers away. I no longer live there but I was born there,” the young girl finished saying.
It's funny because I'm also from Constancia. But my parents left when I was ten years old, said the young man.
Ten years ? Did you leave Constancia at the age of ten? Asks the young girl who curiously begins to address her interlocutor on familiar terms.
Yes, ten years. The exact day I turned ten in fact. Answers the young man.
Joao! Screams the young girl as if she had just found the answer to a riddle of capital importance! You are Joao Alves, she finished saying with a certainty in her eyes that did not tolerate contradiction.
It’s been twelve years since you left Constancia, hasn’t it? she asks the young man who now feels his face turning pale little by little. The bright green color of his eyes contrasts with the sudden pallor of his face. With a perplexed look, he pauses and responds…
Yes that's it. Twelve years since I left for another city in Portugal, far from here, and… – after three seconds of silence he continues – … Twelve years since I thought of you night and day, Anabela! he finished saying, practically with tears in his eyes.
Silence has now become the only master aboard Almourol, this castle has suddenly become much more magnificent than usual, more precious than anything in the world, more magical than the infinity of nothingness and the uncertainty of existence .
The grandiose struggles against the marvelous in this place transformed into a sumptuous lair of splendor. A subtle scent of tenderness invades the dungeon of Almourol and probably deeply permeates the history buried in these stones which have managed to cross time and preserve mysteries in this decidedly fabulous castle.
Almourol has become more beautiful than a child's poem, the kind of poem that a little girl of nine writes during a whole night in the ink of her tears, in order to offer it to her little lover on the day of her tenth birthday, the very day he separates from her probably forever, being forced to follow his parents to somewhere else that will separate them forever.
Certainly, a ten-year-old boy is a man, a real one, a big one. He therefore knows how to restrain himself from crying in this heartbreaking moment of goodbye, when without having the choice, he is forced to leave his little fiancée, his accomplice in games, his confidante since always, the one with whom they had together promised not to never part...
Carefree childhood and utopias of innocence thwarted by unjust restrictions on life.
But at the age of ten, this great man who managed to play adult during the time of departure, once he had set off towards the destiny that life dictated to him, had stopped living, keeping buried within himself this great, eternal love but impossible due to the distance that separated them. How many nights and pillows have been silently flooded by the sadness coming from his childish eyes...
So much secret suffering, so much injustice felt... to be thus, by force of circumstances, separated from this little princess for whom he felt feelings of incredible strength - stronger than the love of grown-ups, he liked. they said to each other at the time... him and this little girl he loved so much...
This little girl, who for her part had ceased to live the day her little Prince left, the one who thought of him every day that God made, who had lost all trace of her lifelong accomplice, and in whom remained a sort of secret hope destined to haunt her until the end of her days.
They are there, both face to face and kneeling on the floor of this magical dungeon of Almourol, hand in hand, their bodies trembling, and not really understanding the reality of this moment that they would no longer have believed possible. even in their foggiest dreams. Their eyes shine with an intensity stronger than the most beautiful fireworks. A tender smile brings them together in a newfound complicity that time has clearly not succeeded in destroying, and which they know will henceforth be more intense than ever, and more beautiful than the absolute.
Words are useless at this moment because images flash from all sides in the heads of these two chicks taken aback by the incredible context in which they bathe with delight. They now only ask life to never separate them again.
There hangs over Almourol a benevolent tranquility while their lips will soon meet... They come closer, touch each other, gently... slowly... intense and subtle tasting of a moment that is worth much more than gold...
The magic of the castle did not miss its appointment. Almourol is indeed a lucky charm, probably even the symbol of absolute luck. In any case, no one will ever be able to convince the two young lovers otherwise, who are now leaving the islet of Almourol and returning to the shore in the small boat that the young girl had borrowed to go to the castle.
The small boat glides over the still visible reflections of the Tagus despite the twilight.
In the distance, on the opposite bank, a shadow seems to make them a friendly sign, to which the two lovebirds respond in heart with a “Thank you” which comes out from their mouths at exactly the same time. This astonishing reaction, and what is more, simultaneous, does not seem to surprise them. A burst of shared and amused laughter follows, marking the beginnings of a new beginning, the true one, and of a great and radiant love story, which, without a doubt, already has the scent of eternity.
“We can only believe that the magic of Almourol and this story have a scent of eternity.
We have been living an extraordinary love story for fifteen years now. And our feelings and our complicity not only remain intact, but we both even have the impression that it is increasing over time. It is magic.
We live… Guess where? In Constancia, a few kilometers from Almourol castle. We have two children, who we wonder why, have started to love the castle and have made it their mascot without even knowing our story, which we will undoubtedly reveal to them one day...
…So that they know that Almourol is magical, but also and above all so that they imbibe the idea that in life nothing is ever definitively impossible.”
