The Letters of Mariana Alcoforado

The Letters of Mariana Alcoforado
It´s impossible to speak of Beja without mentioning the nun Mariana Alcoforado, a legendary figure of this town and present in the romantic imaginary of all the Portuguese.

Inspirer of poets, novelists and painters, Mariana, of noble birth, was very young when se entered the Convent of Our Lady of the Conception, having taken vows at the age of 16.

Fate made her eyes fall upon the French nobleman Noel Bouton, marquis of Chamilly, who was in Portugal with his troops to fight against Spain in the Restoration War.

Mariana is said to have been at the Mértola window of the convent, and from that exchange of glances an immediate and profound love would be born.

From that window, now famous, on the convent´s first floor, Mariana would wait for news from her lover, living an impossible and desperate passion for she was a woman consecrated to God.

Five letters witness that love, written by Mariana to the knight ("Lettres Portugaises") and published in Paris in 1669.

They are considered one of the world´s literary materpieces.