Pedra da paciência (Patience Rock)

It is thought that the house at no. 3 of Rua do Castelo would have been the last Town Hall, where the municipal bodies met and the court of the local Judge was installed. It is probable that the gaol was also located here. Within the scope of the great liberal administrative reforms, the municipality was definitively extinguished in 1848 and the court, although it survived at the time, met the same fate in 1853. The location of the old municipal building of that period being forgotten, perhaps having been located in the adjacent Largo da Misericórdia, the imagination of the populace indirectly recalls its existence, giving the name “patience rock” to a granite bench leaning against a house nearby (Rua do Castelo, no. 4), on the opposite side of the street. This would have served as a seat for those who were interested in visiting prisoners or for witnesses in court cases waiting to be called or other similar situations, faced with the indifference and sluggishness of the Authorities, in the popular opinion.