Nazaré, a deer hunting miracle

We sit in the funicular, ascending the near vertical slopes of the obviously eroding cliffs of Sitio, the old town of Nazaré. Hoping that the age of miracles isn't over. And not looking down.

It seems that it all started here in the middle-ages when a Virgin Mary statue from Nazareth in the Holy Land miraculously appears here: hence Nazaré. The next time one hears of this statue is when local lord, Don Fuas Roupinho, goes out deer hunting in the fog one day. Riding along, towards the brink, the deer goes flying over, as shown in the church painting. But our squire, Don Fuas, invokes the Virgin Mary and his trusty steed rears, right at the overhanging precipice' edge. Both are miraculously spared.

The deer on the other hand... Well, a chapel was built in the Virgin's honor, and tourists can now buy postcards showing the deer in mid-flight, and the horse and rider looking suitably shaken, but safe on the narrow overhanging rocks above the Nazaré bay.

And we too arrive safely up after our funicular ride, to wander about along the paths lining the crumbling overhangs.