On May 8, the 800th anniversary of the first charter granted to Murça by King Sancho II (1224 - 2024) will be marked.

"We are celebrating eight centuries and we cannot overlook what this date represents for the history of our community," the mayor of Murça, Mário Artur Lopes, told Lusa news agency today.

To this end, the local authority in the district of Vila Real has prepared a set of activities involving culture, heritage or the predominant agricultural activities in this territory, such as wine production, which will continue throughout the year, but with a highlight in the months of April and May.

The mayor highlighted the first edition of "Porca Lápis", an international literary festival that will take place from May 3 to 5 and takes the name of the municipality's landmark monument, located in a central square of the town.

The initiative is organized by the publisher "Edições Esgotadas", is dedicated to the celebration of literature, and brings to the territory writers such as Violante Saramago Matos, Pedro Chagas Freitas, Nuno Rogeiro and, at the same time, aims to pay homage to local authors, namely the historian António Borges Coelho.

During the event, the book dedicated to the 800 years of Murça will be launched, authored by Dionísio Fraga and including popular poems from the various villages.

On the first day, the festival will go to schools, bringing writers together with students, and will then be set up in a tent set up for this purpose in the Murça Urban Park, which is intended to become a "true living library".

The municipal executive also announced that, this year, it has decided to grant financial support to the Murça School Group for the acquisition and free distribution to students of classic literature books such as, for example, "The Little Prince", "Bichos" and "Os Maias".

On May 8, a municipal holiday, the solemn session of the commemorations will take place, followed by a historical recreation of the granting of the charter by the Filandorra company -- Teatro do Nordeste and the launch of a 10-year-old Port wine by the Murça Cooperative Winery, in an edition with 800 bottles.

Then, on May 11, the Murça Porca Route will take place, which will take participants on a discovery of the territory, by bicycle, and, at the end of that month, the second edition of the White Wines in the Square exhibition will start.

On May 1, there will be a solidarity walk, promoted by the Murça branch of the Portuguese League Against Cancer, and a day earlier, on Tuesday, the initiative "8 Centuries, 8 Concerts, 8 Churches" will end, a cycle of liturgical, classical and light music that took place in churches in the municipality.

This cycle was born from the idea of decentralizing and relocating cultural events, reaching a greater number of people, this year associated with the celebrations of the 800th anniversary of the municipality of Murça.

Also on the municipality's official Facebook page, since the beginning of the year, old photographs related to the Porca de Murça, a stone statue that is a landmark of the municipality, and of women and men, have been shared in homage to the people of the land.

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