We are born, we fall in love, we live, and we leave – only nature stays behind, a silent witness to forbidden loves and stories that have been lost in time…

In Sortelha, one of the most stunning and oldest Portuguese villages, in the municipality of Guarda, which maintains its urban and architectural physiognomy unaltered to this very day, two rocky boulders tell the story of a love that ended in tragedy.

Legend says that when Portugal fought to regain the Beira regions from the Moors, a Christian alcaide married to a woman who supposedly practiced witchcraft lived in the Castle of Sortelha. The couple had a daughter, whose beauty was known throughout the region. Although she had many suitors, she was engaged to be married to another alcaide in the area.

Nevertheless, the Castle was under siege by Moors, and Sortelha lived difficult times. It was then that the young damsel met the Moor prince and fell in love with him. The knight, who had admired the damsel in his rounds through the siege, had fallen in love with her long before. In secret, they began to exchange messages and presents, thus containing the passion they both felt.

But the damsel’s mother, always attentive, watched the daughter…She found out that the lovers would meet for the first time one certain night, at the wall door. On that night, she decided to follow her, when she found her daughter together with her love, the two of them sharing a kiss! The witch (or fairy) raised her arm over the couple, and they disappeared, leaving behind the two boulders in their place.

Due to the prince’s disappearance, the Moors abandoned the siege. The alcaide, loathsome for the loss of his daughter, decided to found a new settlement at the bottom of the valley. From this story, only the two boulders remain, which the people still call the Rochas do Beijo Eterno…

This is just one of the more curious and captivating legends told in Sortelha, an unparalleled place. The moment we walk through the Castle Door, we enter the central square and discover the Chamber House, the Pillory, House Number 1, and we see the Castle and realize that time has not passed here.

There is more to find in this beautiful historical village, such as, in connection to the legend we just told, the Arabic House, located on the Street of the Mosque, near the False Door and the Torch Tower. A simple building with traditional architecture and only one floor with a regular, L-shaped floor plan, straight lintel gaps without framing, and an inscription on the lintel: “Jhvs Ave Maria.” Considering the door’s beveled stiles and the inscription in cursive Gothic, the house dates back to the 14th century.

Sortelha awaits those of us who are eternally in love, History lovers, or just incurable travelers to offer us unforgettable memories of a unique paradise in the world…