The Portuguese Empire was one of the longest-lasting empires beginning in the
1400s and officially ending in 1999. While they conquered they also did some really creepy things.
Did they really crown a dead queen? Did they sacrifice their people to Gods
and other crazy things you hear about from other ancient empires? Today on Nutty History,
we’re discussing the creepy things that were normal in the Portuguese empire.
To begin, let's discuss a fact that is widely speculated amongst historians and widely debated
amongst them as well. In the mid-14th century, King Peter I, at the time a prince, was the lover
of a noblewoman Inês de Castro. His father, King Afonso IV, did not like her. He felt like she was
a bad influence on his son, and he didn’t want her to be around. . Despite having kids together,
the father well had enough. He sent some people to teach Ines a lesson she wouldn’t forget.
And they did. Right in front of one of her kids, they, uh, applied some Head-be-gone to her. It was
one hell of a way to end the relationship. Prince Peter got his revenge, capturing the killers and
ripping their hearts out in public, “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom” style. That stuff is all
true and a worthy part of Nutty History. But the real meat happens after Peter is crowned king.
King Peter, still heartbroken over the relationship, exhumed her body to crown her queen.
The legends say that the court had to swear their allegiance and adorned her with flowers.
Now we don’t know for sure if it’s true, but when it comes to being the queen,
we suppose it’s better late than never. Portugal is now quite progressive with its death penalties,
abolishing it many years ago, but it did partake in witch trials just like any other country in the
1500s. While the Salem Witch Trials are notable, the Lisbon Witch Trials could give them a run for
their money. About 27 women were accused, with one of them claiming they made whoopee with the devil.
Another claimed to have, uh, late-term miscarried 200 babies. We don't know if they actually did
this, were tortured into confessions, or had delusions. Either way, one person was executed,
and the remaining were imprisoned, banished, or whipped. About 288 witch trials happened,
many happening in Lisbon, but also in Evora. About 818 people were prosecuted in Portugal
during this time for witchcraft. There was also the case of Margardia Lourenco, who confessed
while being tortured to anointing herself five times with an ointment given to her by the devil.
Every time she did it, she would transform into a big, black bird, and then would be transported
to a place where 600 women sat, all of them feasting and congregating with the devil together,
having sexual intercourse with him, and then he’d turn them back into birds
and they’d all fly home. That’s convenient. This confession, recorded by the orphan in 1585,
matches many of the other confessions recorded during these time periods.
When we think of witches, most assume they met a toasty demise. But did you know that many were
not? Instead, the government executed witches by traditional means like the good old-fashioned
guillotine, then toasted their bodies to assure their magic was utterly gone. For Portugal, they
hated witches so much, they not only wanted to end the lives of witches once, but twice. That’s a
little different from the burning of witches done in Monty Python, right? But while women would say
they were not witches, and sometimes would prove otherwise, people didn't believe them, and thus
many were executed or tortured multiple times in order to confess. The witch trials were a good
example of how hysteria over something unprovable can happen. The women put to trial may have had
mental illnesses or just dabbled in different beliefs and were unjustly punished for it.
In Lisbon, one can find the largest cemetery in the city, the Prazeres Cemetery. This
translates to the Cemetery of Pleasures, which is a strange name for a cemetery. A cemetery with an
ironic name doesn’t seem so creepy. After all, everyone has to meet the Reaper and there needs
to be a place to bury them. But the story of how it was founded earns its creepiness.
It was founded due to an outbreak of cholera in 1833. Never heard of cholera?
It’s an infection of the intestines. The most common symptom is that it gives you the runs.
Now, I have a sense of humor like a child too, but this was a serious illness in many cases.
In severe instances of cholera, the person would dehydrate like a raisin on a sidewalk in Florida.
Their kidneys would go bye-bye, and before long, the Reaper was taking them away. Cholera itself
came to Portugal due to the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, where British and Portuguese Naval
forces clashed. It was a little more than scurvy those sailors encountered. Nearly 200 years later,
humanity is still warring with one another, but at least we have antibiotics! So why’s it called
the Cemetery of pleasures if something so terrible happened there? While there’s no specific reason
behind it, we can assume it’s because of the beautiful collection of mausoleums there, and the
many beautiful gravesites that decorate the place, along with the many famous people who were buried
there too including the first duke of Palmera who was the first prime minister of Portugal,
Columbo Bordalo Pinheiro, a famous painter, Mario Soares, the 25 president of Portugal, and others.
I guess by some people’s standards this is a pleasurable place, but it may not be for everyone.
Is there really a serial killer’s head in a jar? Well at the Faculty of Medicine of
Lisbon University, it exists, and it’s the head of the serial killer Diago Alves. To this day,
scientists study this man’s brain, but for what reason? Well, it was because when he was executed,
phrenology was beginning to roam the science world. While dubbed a pseudoscience today,
it’s still there and kept as something to study. Who was he though? Well, in the 1800s,
a killer named Diogo Alves stalked Lisbon, with his killing grounds being the aqueduct known as
the Aqueduto das Águas Livres. His method of killing involves throwing his victims off the
aqueduct while blindfolded. The aqueduct was quite a popular location due to an economic
crisis at the time. The local law enforcement suspected multiple people ended their lives there.
However, with time, the police did suspect something and they closed the aqueduct.
Because of this location closing, Alves reverted to robbing houses and killing people who resided
in them. This change of pace eventually caused his downfall, with the police catching him. The
man was then executed, with his execution being the last in Portugal's death penalty. So, why
did he do it? No one knows! That’s why the doctors decided to take Alves’s head to study his brain.
Another skull was taken as well, that of Francisco Mattos Lobo, who killed a family of four and also
a dog. However, his skull, while examined in April of 1842, sits two doors down and is not visited
nearly as much as Alves was. Just look at his face. He seems so calm and looks like he's about
to take his next victim. Luckily, he doesn't have the consciousness to do that… or does he?
While we understand the value of preserving the past, this is going a little too far.
One killer that roamed the streets in the early 1990s was dubbed the Lisbon Ripper.
This killer was well-known to go after people who wanted to give their customers a good time.
Just like Jack the Ripper. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The first victim, Maria Valentina, died gruesomely. It’s hard to say everything he did,
but let’s just say the woman was missing a few organs after her whole ordeal. And her
life. The following two victims, Maria Fernanda and Maria Joao, died in a similar circumstance.
Joao's death, in particular, was gruesome, with most of her organs gone. Now we don’t know what
weapon was used to disembowel them, but it could have been a scalpel. As you may have figured out,
all these victims were named Maria and had brunette hair. Did someone have a bad relationship
with a woman named Maria and took it out on these innocent women? Unfortunately, we will never know,
as this person was never caught. Some people throughout the years claim they knew the Ripper,
but no concrete evidence has been proven. Being less than 30 years ago, this man may be still out
there, roaming the streets. So if you're a woman named Maria, you better keep your organs in check!
Ah, mini-golf. It's a fun family activity or a way to have some fun if you have nothing better to do
with your friends. I mean the worst that happens at a mini-golf course is your ball falls into a
water hazard, and you have to buy everyone drinks because you're way over par. Except if you're in
ProPuttingGarden in Lagos. This seemingly innocent mini-golf course holds a secret:
a mass burial ground of slaves. Portugal has had involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
While they abolished slavery in 1761 (although their involvement with slavery still lasted far
beyond then), their brutal history has been widely discussed. In 2009 people discovered a mass grave
for slaves underneath there. Construction workers wanted to create an underground parking lot and
ran into this mass grave. Some of the bodies dated as far back as the 15th century and were of
African descent. Many still had shackles on their remains. One would think ProPuttingGarden would
acknowledge this, but it kept on the low low for this mini-golf course. The remains are in storage
and haven’t been touched since. While Portugal has progressed since then, we believe that
acknowledging the country's brutal history is an essential step in growing as a society.
They were people, not roadblocks to building extra parking space! What do you think? Are
there weird stories we left out? What tales have you heard? Let us know in the comments.
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that chronicle the outright nutty facts of the world. Thanks for watching Nutty History.