The voice of the fields collected in 1899
In the year 1899, Ladislau Piçarra and M. Dias Nunes founded the monthly magazine 'A Tradição' in Serpa, a publication strictly dedicated to the ethnographic collection of local legends, songs, and superstitions. This pioneering initiative made it possible to preserve in writing a vast intangible heritage that, until then, lived only in the memory of the peasants of Baixo Alentejo. The facsimile publication of the magazine, promoted by the Municipality of Serpa in 1999, made hundreds of pages of phonetic transcriptions of traditional tales gathered directly in the region publicly available.
The narratives collected by these researchers reveal a universe where the agricultural landscape and water resources appear inextricably linked to fabulous creatures. According to records cataloged within the scope of the ethnography of Baixo Alentejo by the District Assembly of Beja in 1985, legends of enchanted Moorish maidens in Serpa frequently appear associated with water springs, hollows, and guarded treasures. These elements differ from the narratives of the north of the country, focusing on a strong hybridization between the winged serpent and the aquatic Moorish maiden, according to an intangible heritage inventory by the Alentejo Network of Libraries and Archives from 2019.
The oral transmission of these stories found an echo in popular literature and proverbs collected by Maria Rita Ortigão Pinto Cortez in the Cancioneiro de Serpa, published by the Municipality in 1994. These collections contain sayings deeply rooted in the land, demonstrating that local mythology was not a foreign body, but rather an integral part of daily agricultural life. The Professional School for Rural Development of Serpa developed practical pedagogical projects in 2020 for the rehabilitation of this oral tradition and local myths among younger generations, ensuring the continuity of the collection gathered in the 19th century.
Turdetani princesses and the serpent of Ficalho
According to the ethnographic record published in the digital collection of popular tales by the Municipality of Serpa in 2010, the legendary foundation of the municipality is associated with the figure of the princess Serpínia, daughter of the Turdetani king Cófilas. This erudite and mythical version contrasts with the strictly popular narratives gathered in the field by local monograph writers. In a monograph on oral tradition compiled by António Ferreira Lopes and integrated into the collection of the Municipality of Beja in 2000, the legend of the enchanted snake of Horta de Cima, in Vila Verde de Ficalho, is specifically documented.
The persistence of these ophidian beliefs was validated by direct testimonies collected in the 20th century. According to the deposition gathered by researcher Francisco Valente Machado in 1939, the informant Domingas Roupa reported local beliefs regarding nighttime visions of a serpent with a female hair braid in Ficalho, as documented by the Ataíde Oliveira Study Center. This entity pointed out, in 2000, direct morphological parallels between the serpent with human traits of Serpa and the legends of Moorish maidens and snakes with hair recorded in the neighboring municipality of Moura.
The fusion between these mythical narratives and the official identity of the territory is reflected in municipal heraldry. Analyzed in local monographs collected by the Municipality of Serpa in 2021, the local authority formally adopted a winged serpent on its coat of arms, directly referring to the ancestral guardian legend of the banks of the Guadiana River, historically known as the ancient Anas. Historical and monographic records on the toponymy of Serpa permanently contrast this mythological version based on protective ophidian beings with official historiography.
The gap between oral tradition and the stone archive
The most obvious reading would assume that Serpa's legends about serpents and enchanted princesses are pure mythological creations without any administrative documentary support or institutional connection. However, this premise crumbles when ethnographic data is crossed with the 16th-century collections preserved in the municipality. Historical records and monographs from the Municipality of Serpa from 2021 prove that the fixation of these narratives did not occur only in oral folklore, but influenced the very heraldic and identitarian structuring of the municipality over the centuries.
In administrative terms, the Municipal Archive of Serpa formally initiated the safeguarding of historical document collections dating from the mid-16th century, integrating administrative records that reflect the bureaucratic and social evolution of the municipality, according to reports by the local authority itself from 2001. To ensure the preservation of this written heritage, the municipality applied in 2001 for the Support Program for the Municipal Archives Network, known by the acronym PARAM, with the objective of restructuring the historical document repository managed in coordination with the Torre do Tombo, according to data from the National Archives Institute from 2001.
Thus, historical research categorically distinguishes the ethnographic record collected by chroniclers and ethnographers since 1899 from 16th-century administrative sources. While popular tales of winged serpents and aquatic Moorish maidens fueled oral tradition and the 1994 Cancioneiro de Serpa, charters and municipal minutes document the governance and bureaucratic transition of the territory, proving that myth and administration coexisted in the construction of Serpa's history.
From Cante Alentejano to 21st-century archives
The safeguarding of collective memory in Serpa gained new institutional momentum with the valorization of transnational and regional intangible heritage. Within the scope of Cante Alentejano, recognized by UNESCO in 2015, cross-inventorying between traditional romances and oral tales collected by local monograph writers intensified in the municipality of Serpa, according to reports by the Municipality of Serpa dated 2015. This work made it possible to link ancient sung melodies to the mythological narratives of Moorish maidens and serpents guarding subterranean treasures.
The articulation between academic research and the local community was consolidated through institutional partnerships and reference publications. The facsimile publication of the magazine 'A Tradição', promoted by the Municipality of Serpa in 1999, paved the way for the collection of popular tales gathered by Ladislau Piçarra and M. Dias Nunes to be studied by new generations of researchers. In parallel, the intangible heritage inventory published by the Alentejo Network of Libraries and Archives in 2019 demonstrated the municipality's singularity in preserving ophidian myths in comparison with other regions of the country.
The effort toward digitization and document safeguarding extended to study centers and professional schools in the region. The pedagogical project developed by the Professional School for Rural Development of Serpa in 2020 used records collected by the Ataíde Oliveira Study Center to raise youth awareness regarding the importance of preserving legendary toponymy and beliefs associated with the municipality's watercourses, ensuring the sustainability of local historical memory.
The visible heritage in the landscape and on the coat of arms
Today, the heritage of these centuries-old narratives remains visible both in the official heraldry of the municipality and on the banks of the Guadiana River and in the oral traditions maintained by the people of Vila Verde de Ficalho. The winged serpent formally adopted on the municipal coat of arms, analyzed in monographs by the Municipality of Serpa from 2021, serves as a permanent testimony of the fusion between Turdetani mythology and the popular recreation documented by Francisco Valente Machado in 1939. This symbiosis between the heraldic symbol and the oral legend distinguishes Serpa in the context of Baixo Alentejo.
The agricultural landscape of the municipality, marked by traditional vegetable gardens and watercourses where enchanted Moorish maidens were once said to dwell, continues to be an object of ethnographic study and institutional valorization. Through the work developed by the Municipal Archive of Serpa and publications promoted by the local authority since 1999, the intangible heritage collected by pioneers such as Ladislau Piçarra and M. Dias Nunes remains accessible, ensuring that the beliefs gathered from the peasants of Serpa are not lost in time.
This tradition's vitality is reflected in the way the school community and local authorities continue to cross 16th-century administrative records with the oral collection cataloged throughout the 20th century. Between the documents safeguarded by PARAM in 2001 and the pedagogical projects of 2020, Serpa keeps alive the duality between the official history of its charters and the timeless fascination of its legendary serpents.