The name Santarém rests on a fascinating, historically rooted 7th-century legend. The tragic narrative centres on Iria, a devout Visigothic noblewoman from Nabância who took sacred vows of chastity. Her beauty sparked unrequited obsessions in a nobleman named Britaldo and her spiritual tutor, the monk Remígio.

One day, Remígio maliciously administered a toxic potion that caused Iria’s stomach to swell, falsely simulating a pregnancy. Believing the rumours, a furious Britaldo hired an assassin who struck her down in 653 AD.

Her lifeless body was then cast into the Nabão River, floating down into the Tagus. Miraculously, a divinely sealed marble tomb appeared underwater near the Roman city of Scalabis, encasing her uncorrupted body. Stunned by this celestial event, the ancient local population renamed their settlement Sancta Irene, which evolved into Santarém.

Queen Isabel of Aragon later erected a stone monument at the riverside site where the tomb remained permanently submerged. Isn’t it interesting how events like these shape our modern life far more than we assume?