Beja (Portugal) - Five Love Letters of A Portuguese Nun

Five Love Letters of A Portuguese Nun

Main article : Letters of a Portuguese Nun

The love affair of Mariana Alcoforado, a 17th c. nun from the convent of the Poor Ladies, with the French officer Noël Bouton, Marquis de Chamilly and later Marshall of France, has made Beja famous in (mainly Portuguese and French) literary circles. Looking from her window, the janela de Mertola, she saw the young officer only once in 1641, while he was campaigning against the Spanish army in the Alentejo. She fell in love at once and wrote him five passionate letters. The Portuguese version of these letters don't exist anymore. They were "translated" into French and published in Brussels in 1669 and soon in several other languages. These lyrical letters full of absolute passion, hope, pleas and despair were an instant success. In the same year the original publisher, Claude Barbin, published a sequel, again written by a Portuguese "lady of society" with seven new letters added to the original five. Later, several hack writers wrote serial stories on the same theme. The interest in these Portuguese love letters was so strong in the 17th century, that the word "portugaise" became synonymous for "passionate love letter". Even in recent years these letters have been transformed into a stage play "Cartas". It was performed in New York in the Bleecker Theatre’s Culture Project in 2001.