- This legend of Foz de Arouce is connected with the golden shrine
located on the right side of the golden road. This golden road is
near the road which connects Foz de Arouce to Semide. According to
the legend, the shrine was built by the "souls of the men who
sought for gold". After many studies done on the spot, it is
thought that the golden road would go as far as Conímbriga, but
actually no one is certain about it. A man got lost on his way to
Rome. He arrived to a small village called Foz de Arouce and spent
the night at a woman's house. When the woman asked him where he came
from he answered that he came from Rego da Vide. Then she asked him
if in that place he had heard about a rock which had a hole. As the
man said he did she ordered him a task as payment for spending the
night at her house. He would have to go to that hole a say the name
Basília three times. The man promised to do what she had asked him.
The following day before leaving, she gave him a donkey shaped bread,
and warned him to keep it in one piece until the moment someone
answered him from the hole. By that time he would have to throw the
bread inside. They said goodbye to each other and the man continued
on his way to Rome. When he came back to Rego da Vide and not
forgetting about the promise he had made to the woman from Foz de
Arouce, he went to the rock and called the name Basília three
times. A voice answered him from the inside: - The one who calls my
name brings me news from my mother! He then threw the bread into the
hole, but as he had kept it for so long in his pocket, wrapped in a
handkerchief, and as he had travelled all around the world, a leg
from the donkey shaped bread got broken. Thus, as the bread fell in
the hole he heard the same voice saying: - How unfortunate you were!
You've doubled my spell! Besides the money that my mother gave you
without your knowledge you would have had many goods. But now you
will be back every day because in this rock you will find a dime.
And Basília stayed there, nobody knows for how long, but the man,
who was a gambler, spent every dime that Basília gave him every day.
One day as he was winning the game, he forgot to keep the secret and
said:
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