The 7 Cidades Tail

The kings of the Kingdom of the 7 Cidades had a beautiful daughter who liked to walk through the kingdom's meadows and trails. It was on one of these walks that the princess met a shepherd, son of simple local people. Every day the shepherd walked the flock and talked for a long time with the princess. It was from there that a great love was born.

But the princess was already betrothed to another prince from a neighboring kingdom and the king forbade his daughter to meet the shepherd. In a last meeting, before the princess left for the wedding, the two shed so many tears that it was from the blue eyes of the princess that Lagoa Azul (large lagoon) was born and from the green eyes of the shepherd that Lagoa Verde was born.

It is these lakes that today fill the majority of the crater of the 7 cidades and are separated by a bridge – the Ponte dos Regos, or Ponte dos 7 Arcos, which was completed in 1967 and replaced the bridge with just 1 arch.