Fonte de Ançã
Presentation
The Fonte de Ançã dates back to 1674, and it has flow of 20640 litres per minute.
It has a square shape and is covered by a domed roof supported by three rusticated arches and cornerstones, showing the Castros? coat of arms, belonging to the Marquês de Cascais, Lord of the Village of Ançã.
Observations
According to Vergílio Correia and A. Nogueira Gonçalves, the fountain was used by the Romans, as Roman mosaics were found close by.
An important spring gushes forth there, and a stream - Vala de Ançã - that crosses the Town and provides water to irrigate the farmlands up to the neighbouring village (S. João do Campo).
Particularities
Along the walls that surround this enclosure, there are canopied stone benches, which served as pedestals where the girls used to rest their twenty litre pitchers and wooden jugs, and benches for the young men who would ?capture? the beautiful girls or would wait for them at dusk, for long-awaited rendezvous or just for a drink of cool water savoured directly from their pitchers which the young men would then help to balance on the girls? heads, in a gesture of courteous gallantry.
