The Legend of Santa Clara-a-Nova

Where Santa Clara-a-Nova stands today there was, in very ancient times, a lagoon. The village lay elsewhere, at a place still called Chaminé, where ruins of collapsed houses are said to remain.

The legend tells that the people of that village decided to build a church there and began the first works. Then something happened that stayed in the memory of the people: the tools the workmen left at the chosen spot turned up every morning somewhere else, beside the lagoon, exactly where the parish church stands today.

Next to the moved tools there was always a little white dove, cooing with an enchanting, musical sound. The tools were carried back to Chaminé, and they mysteriously reappeared on the shore of the lagoon, with the dove hovering over the water and the tools, staying there night and day.

This went on for a long time. People began to blame the moving of the tools on the mysterious white dove, which would not let them build the church where they wanted, and they went about silent and deep in thought.

Then a voice from heaven broke the silence, saying: "Here, in this place, I want the church and the village called Santa Clara to be built!"

With great faith, those people built the parish church there and, around it, the houses of the village. The legend says that throughout the building work the white dove came every morning and afternoon to greet the workers with tender cooing.

And even today, in some streets of the village and beside the houses, a few rushes appear from time to time. The inhabitants take this as a sign that a lagoon really did exist there.