page_title: Póvoa de Varzim
section_title: Ethnography
hierarchical_section_title: Póvoa de Varzim / Culture and contemporary life / Ethnography
context_page_description: Póvoa de Varzim is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, 30 km from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 inhabitants, with 42,396 living in the city proper. The city expanded, southwards, to Vila do Conde, and there are about 100,000 inhabitants in the urban area alone. It is the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in Portugal and the third largest in Northern Portugal.
  Permanent settlement in Póvoa de Varzim dates back to around four to six thousand years ago; around 900 BC, unrest in the region led to the establishment of Cividade de Terroso, a fortified city, which developed maritime trade routes with the civilizations of classical antiquity. Modern Póvoa de Varzim emerged after the conquest by the Roman Republic of the city by 138 BC; fishing and fish processing units soon developed, which became the foundations of the local economy.
context_section_description: The culture of Póvoa de Varzim derives from different working classes and with influences arriving from the maritime route from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. The docudrama film Ala-Arriba! by José Leitão de Barros, popularized this unique Portuguese fishing community within the country during the 1940s. The local expression ala-arriba means "go upwards" and it represents the co-operation between the inhabitants.
  Siglas Poveiras are a form of proto-writing system, with a restricted number of symbols that were combined to form more complex symbols; these were used as a rudimentary visual communication system, and as a signature to mark belongings. Merchants wrote them in their books of credit; fishermen used it in religious rituals by marking them in the door of Catholic chapels near hills or beaches; in the table of the church during marriage and in their tombstone; and also had magical significance, such as the São Selimão sigla, that could be used as a protecting symbol and not as family mark. Children used the same family mark with piques as a form of cadency. The youngest son would not have any pique and would inherit his father's symbol. The siglas are still used, though much less commonly, by some families; and are related with Viking traditions.
  The Poveiro is a specific genre of boat characterized by a wide flat-bottom and a deep helm. There were diverse boats with different sizes, uses and shapes. The most notable of which, the Lancha Poveira, was believed to be derived from the Drakkar Viking, but without a long stern and bow and with a lateen sail. Each boat carried carvings, namely a sigla poveira mark for boat identification and magical-religious protection at sea. According to a tradition that persists to this day, the youngest son is the heir of the family, as in old Brittany and Denmark, because it was expected that he would take care of his parents when they became old. Women govern the family, because men were usually away from home fishing.
  The Branqueta is the traditional dress of the fishermen of Póvoa de Varzim. The Camisola Poveira are pullovers, part of the dress, that have fishery motifs in white, black and red, with the name of the owner embroidered in siglas poveiras. Other dresses include the urban tricana poveira for women and children's catalim caps. Handicrafts include the Tapetes de Beiriz rustic carpets.
  Formerly, the population was divided into different "castes", Lanchões, Rasqueiros, and Sardinheiros which were stratified depending on their Poveiro boat and fisheries caught. Apart from them, the Lavradores (the farmers) and the Sargaceiros and Seareiros, who went to the sea searching for fertilizers. As a rule, the groups remained distinct, and mixed marriages between them were forbidden, mostly because of the isolationism of the fishermen.
  São Félix Hill is a reference point for fishermen at sea and on the last Sunday of May, there is the Pilgrimage of Nossa Senhora da Saúde (Our Lady of Good Health) which covers a distance of 7 km (4.3 mi) between the Matriz Church and the hill. In Cape Santo André there is the Saint's Rock, which has a mark that the Povoan fishermen believe to be a footprint of Saint Andrew. The saint is seen as the "Boatman of Souls", fishing the souls of those who drown in the sea after a shipwreck, and helped in fisheries and marriages. The procession to the cape occurs on the dawn of the last day of November, when groups of men and women, wearing black hoods and holding lamps, go to the chapel via the beach. On August 15, the pinnacle of the fishermen's Feast of the Assumption occurs in the seaport with carefully arranged boats and fireworks. In mid-September, there's the Senhora das Dores festival with the century-old Pottery Fair.
caption: A parade with traditional Branqueta costumes. It includes Camisola Poveira, which is used by men.
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