The pilgrimage of Our Lady of Fetal (Batalha, Portugal) and the “Snails Procession” classification as intangible cultural heritage

Local culture and identity

Bibliographic Data

ID16775006
AuthorsFernando Magalhães (0000-0002-1206-8622, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, corresponding author), Vieira Ricardo (0000-0003-1529-1296, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria), Ana Moderno (Instituto Politécnico de Leiria)
Year2026
Volume32
Issue1
Pages1-18
Publication date2026-04-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Iberian & Latin American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1469-9524 • E-ISSN: 1470-1847
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14701847.2026.2652285
OpenAlexW7154520369
LanguageEN
References cited7

This text is the result of research carried out on a Portuguese pilgrimage: the pilgrimage in honor of Our Lady of Fetal. This religious festival, of Catholic origin, takes place in the “Reguengo do Fetal” village, municipality of Batalha, Portugal. This pilgrimage is distinguished from other national and international religious festivities because it includes two processions known as “processions of the snails.” The routes taken by the processions and other symbolic places of the local community are illuminated by thousands of snail shells, inside which olive oil and a wick are placed. An interdisciplinary team, made up of anthropologists, museologists, media technicians, students, and others, met between 1 September 2022, and 31 December 2023, to study the particularities of this cultural practice, through the ethnographic method. Our objectives included the study, the preservation, and the dissemination of this cultural practice, also contributing to the classification of the “Snails Processions” as National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Cultural identity · Identification (biology · Identity (music · Pilgrimage · Archaeology and Cultural Heritage · Cultural Identity and Heritage · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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