Portugal’s corpse bride.
THE PASSIONATE BUT FAILED LOVE STORY BETWEEN Pedro, Portugal’s crown prince, and his wife’s lady-in-waiting is the stuff of bodice rippers and slasher flicks.
Inês de Castro, a young woman, met Pedro in 1340 while accompanying his wife to court. Inês and Pedro fell madly in love, and neither the king’s displeasure nor the wife’s intrigues could keep them apart.
In a final act of desperation, King Afonso IV, Pedro’s father, had Inês assassinated in front of her children. Pedro, hurt and angry, rose up against his father in open rebellion but eventually failed in his quest for vengeance and justice.
Afonso died two years after Inês’ death, and Pedro became king; and here’s where things get a little strange:
According to legend, Pedro ordered Inês’ body to be exhumed, clothed in finery and propped up in the throne room. Pedro then commanded his vassals to swear allegiance and duty to this corpse he dubbed his wife and queen and further required that they kiss her lifeless hand.
Without regard for formalities, Pedro had his deceased bride placed in a sumptuous tomb at the magnificent Monastery of Alcobaça, where she remains to this day, interred beside her love.
Afonso Henriques, the first Portuguese monarch, constructed the monastery in 1153. It survived the 1755 Great Lisbon Earthquake but was heavily ravaged by Napoleon’s invading French, who seized the magnificent library, robbed graves, and ruined décor. It was a monastery until the mid-nineteenth century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The transept of the cathedral contains the burials of King Pedro I and his mistress, Inês de Castro. Nobody knows who carved the exquisitely beautiful and detailed graves, but they are among the finest in Portugal, depicting images of the last judgment and the couple’s sculpted likenesses being carried aloft by angels. The lovers stand facing one other, their tombstones engraved with the words “Até ao fim do mundo…” or “Until the end of the world…”
The Alcobaça Monastery is a Catholic monastic complex located in the town of Alcobaça, in central Portugal, some 120 km north of Lisbon.
