The legend of Mareares

A local tradition falls in the realm of legend episode of Castle conquest by the Christians:

Aware of the privileged position of the castle and the close watch kept by the Moors, Paio Peres Correia, some Portuguese dispatched scouts to test the waters and the habits of the population of the people, in order to outline his assault plan. In the field, they managed to entice a Moorish of rare beauty, Maria Aires, informed them that the practice of an ancient custom of the inhabitants of the region, to bathe on the beach of Mulberry at dawn on June 24.

Based on this information, the Paio arranged his men so that on the night of 23 to 24 that month, if conceal the neighboring valley to the castle, now known as Sancho valley, certainly in honor of the sovereign time, Sancho II of Portugal. Camouflaged with vegetation, waited for the movement of the Moors towards the beach in the early hours. As soon as it began, Christians, still covered in darkness, embarked on the final approach to the assault on the village and castle unguarded. At this time, a girl, the granddaughter of an old woman who had fallen behind in the village, seeing the unusual movement out of doors, ran to warn her grandmother that the bushes were walking. The old lady explained to her granddaughter the effects of the breeze on vegetation when surprise Christians burst through the doors, dominating the lady who also brought to the alarm, ringing a bell in the tower of the tank. Lords of the land, the Portuguese then raised the alarm, attracting supporters for a death trap inside the enclosure.

With the village won for the arms of Portugal, D. Paio, states that sensitized by the charms of the beautiful Maria Aires, spared his life and honor, making him build a house in the immediate vicinity of the town that even today, in his memory, is called Mareares.