Live statues festival of Tomar
The Tomar Living Statues Festival had this year’s theme as its feminine history, which was applauded by the many people who came to Mochão Park. From Antónia Ferreira, the “Ferreirinha” who still today gives her name to bottles of Port wine, to Rainha Santa Isabel, the living statues animated the pleasant Mochão Park, in the heart of the city of Tomar, for two days.
This year, in its sixth edition, the Tomar Living Statues Festival decided to create a theme that would make the first day more homogeneous. The organizers (Nuno de Santa Maria School Grouping and Tomar Municipality) decided to pay tribute to the women who stood out in the history of Portugal.
The many visitors who came to Parque do Mochão and Jardim da Várzea Pequena, on the banks of the River Nabão, thus got a glimpse of the role women have played throughout our history, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
There was Catarina Eufémia, the rural worker murdered by the national guard during a protest during the dictatorship, and also Domitília Miranda de Carvalho, the first Portuguese woman to graduate in Medicine. Therefore, not only the great heroines of history were honoured, but also those who stood out for their path, in a total of 15 moments.
This year, and for the first time, the Tomar Living Statues Festival was paid for. However, the organisation’s bet proved to be the right one, since many people wanted to be present at the initiative and appreciate the work of some of the greatest Portuguese and European artists. The festival took place over two days and the price for the total event was only 5 euros. And all those who went there gave their money well spent.
With musical entertainment that gave various ambiences to the space, the public that came to the festival could appreciate more than a dozen historical figures. Antónia Rodrigues, the Portuguese woman who in the 16th century disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the square of Mazagão, in North Africa, and whose bravery earned her the nickname “Terror of the Moors” was the most colourful of the statues.
Queen D. Leonor, Deu-La-Deu Martins, Maria da Fonte, D. Teresa Távora were some of the figures that the artists dressed. And Angela Tamagnini, the toman who negotiated with the French and avoided the bloodbath and the surrender of the city to the invading army, was not missing.
By viewing each statue, visitors could learn about its history and why it was important at some point in history.
The Tomar Living Statues Festival is repeated every September and has already conquered a definite place in the strong cultural programme of the city of the Knights Templars.