The Legend of the Seven Cities

The legend of the princess and the shepherd in the kingdom of the Seven Cities is an oral tradition from the island of São Miguel, in the Azores. It tells the story of the origin of the lagoons in the caldera of the Sete Cidades volcano, which, despite being joined, have two different colors, one green and the other blue. This legend is part of the legendary complex of the Seven Cities, an ancient and mythical kingdom, lost somewhere in the great western ocean…

The kings of this enchanted land had a beautiful daughter who did not like to feel trapped within the castle walls and went out to the fields every day. She loved the green and the flowers, the birdsong, the sea on the horizon. She wandered through the villages, the hills, and the valleys.

During one of his walks through the fields, he met a shepherd, the son of simple country folk who had come home from work with their flocks. They talked for almost an entire afternoon about life, and realized they enjoyed the same things. From this lengthy conversation, love blossomed, and they began to meet every day, swearing eternal love.

However, the princess, whose destiny had already been mapped out by her parents, was betrothed to a prince from a neighboring kingdom. When her father learned of these meetings with the shepherd, he forbade them, but granted her one final farewell encounter.

When the two lovers met for the last time, they wept so much that two lagoons gradually grew near their feet. One lagoon, with blue water, was born from the tears shed by the princess’s equally blue eyes. The other, green in color, was born from the tears shed by the shepherd’s equally green eyes.

Legend says that if the two lovers could not live together forever, at least the lagoons born from their tears would remain together forever, never to be separated.

The Azores possess countless legends in their oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation. Visit us and discover this and other enchanting legends.