On this day, the Peace Festival will take place in Benfeita, one of the two Aldeias do Xisto in the municipality of Arganil that recalls the end of World War II  by sounding its bells 1620 times.

Once known as the “Salazar Tower”, it was at the initiative of Mário Mathias, the “illustrious resident of Benfeita”, in 1944, that it was decided to build a monument, the Tower of Peace, in the village that would announce and celebrate the end of World War II by sounding its bell. This happened for the first time at two o’clock in the afternoon of 7 May 1945.

Since then, the tradition has been kept and every year on 7 May, the day in which World War II ended, the Tower sounds its bell 1620 times in honour of the days that peace lasted in Portugal during the conflict. It is said to have been one of the first places in the country which knew that the war had ended, at exactly two in the afternoon on 7 May 1945. The church bells rang out immediately, as they have done every year since.

This is without a doubt a magnificent reason to come and visit this Aldeia do Xisto,   and the nearby emblematic tourist attractions, the Protected Landscape of Serra do Açor and its charming Mata da Margaraça, as well as Fraga da Pena.