🇵🇹 Portugal · Central Portugal
Nazaré is both a lifelong fishing town and the world capital of giant waves. For centuries it was a seafaring village on the Portuguese Atlantic coast, with its high-prowed boats, its fish drying in the sun and its women dressed in the traditional 'sete saias', the seven layered skirts of the local costume. In summer its huge beach fills with umbrellas and families. But since 2011 the name Nazaré has travelled the world for another reason: the biggest waves ever surfed break here.
The secret lies underwater. Off Praia do Norte opens the Nazaré submarine canyon, the largest in Europe, more than 200 km long and over 4,500 metres deep. The canyon acts as a funnel, concentrating and amplifying the energy of Atlantic storms, so that when the big winter swells arrive, Praia do Norte throws up walls of water tens of metres high. This is where Germany's Sebastian Steudtner surfed the 26.21-metre (86-foot) wave recognised as the world record.
Nazaré therefore offers two trips in one. There is the natural spectacle of the giant waves — October to March, and that needs saying, because in summer the sea is calm and there is nothing to see — watched from the Sítio, the neighbourhood on top of the cliff, beside the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo and its lighthouse. And there is traditional Nazaré: the historic funicular, the church of the Virgin who gave the town its name and its legend, the fresh fish, the beach and the seafaring customs. This guide covers both sides with practical, verified information.
The name and the origin of Nazaré are tied to a founding legend. Tradition holds that an image of the Virgin brought from Nazareth (hence the name) reached this coast in the early Middle Ages. The best-known legend tells that in 1182 the knight Dom Fuas Roupinho was chasing a deer on horseback through the fog and was about to plunge off the cliff; calling on Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, his horse stopped miraculously at the very edge, saving his life. In thanks he had the Ermida da Memória built, and in time the great sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré rose here, making the Sítio an important pilgrimage site. Legend aside, Nazaré was for centuries a fishing village whose boats worked the Atlantic with high prows, hauled up the sand by oxen (and later tractors), and whose women wore the 'sete saias'. The village was historically laid out in the Sítio (above), the Praia (by the sea) and Pederneira. Everything changed in the 21st century: in November 2011 the American surfer Garrett McNamara rode a wave of some 24 m (78 ft) at Praia do Norte that broke the world record and put Nazaré on the big-wave map, thanks to the submarine canyon that amplifies the swell. Since then the village has become the world mecca of giant waves. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The Portugal of learning and faith: Coimbra and its university, one of the oldest in the world; Fátima, a great pilgrimage centre; Nazaré and its giant waves; Aveiro, the 'Portuguese Venice' of the lagoon; and Óbidos, a walled medieval village.
Read the history of Central Portugal →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Few towns owe their name and their origin to a legend as completely as Nazaré does. It all begins, according to tradition, with a small image of the Virgin Mary supposedly carved in Nazareth, in the Holy Land, and brought to this Atlantic coast in the early centuries of the Middle Ages. From that devotion — Nossa Senhora da Nazaré — come both the name of the place and its fame as a sanctuary.
The most famous episode, still retold on every visit, is set in 1182. The knight Dom Fuas Roupinho, governor of the castle of Porto de Mós, was riding one foggy morning in pursuit of a deer. The animal ran towards the edge of the Sítio cliff and the knight, blinded by the mist, galloped after it straight for the drop. At the last instant, seeing himself lost, Dom Fuas called on Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, whose chapel he knew. The horse stopped dead, miraculously, its hooves at the very edge of the abyss, saving the rider's life.
In thanks, Dom Fuas had the Ermida da Memória, the chapel of memory, built on that spot; it still stands. The story deserves to be treated honestly: it is a religious legend, not a documented fact. But its force was enormous. Devotion to the Virgin of Nazaré grew over the centuries, drew pilgrims from all over the kingdom and led to the building of the great sanctuary at the Sítio. Faith, more than history, sketched the first outlines of this town.
Legend aside, the real Nazaré was for centuries above all a fishing town. Its geography split it into three centres that are still distinct today: the Sítio, on top of the cliff, where the sanctuary and the first houses stood, sheltered from the sea and from pirate raids; a Praia, by the beach, where the fishing community lived and worked; and Pederneira, on another rise. For a long time, fear of the corsairs who ravaged the coast kept people away from the shore; only over the centuries did the town move down to the beach for good.
Life revolved around the Atlantic. Nazaré's traditional boats, with high prows and bright colours, put to sea straight off the sand, with no harbour: they were launched and then hauled back up by teams of oxen — and later tractors — across the beach, a collective task that was a spectacle in itself. The catch was dried in the sun on nets spread over the sand, a sight you can still see and one of the town's classic images.
That seafaring culture also produced Portugal's most famous costume: the 'sete saias', the seven skirts. The women of Nazaré wore several short colourful skirts one over the other — traditionally seven — with a headscarf, apron and other pieces. Many popular explanations have been offered for the number, from religious symbolism to the practical need to keep warm during long waits on the beach while the men were out fishing. All of them are part of the folklore, and there are still women who wear the outfit in the Sítio and beside the sea. The fortress at the Sítio, the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo, built in the 17th century to defend the coast from pirates, recalls those times when the sea brought both a living and danger.
For centuries what gave Nazaré its name and its renown was not the waves but the Virgin. The Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, in the Sítio, became one of the most important Marian pilgrimage centres in Portugal. The devotion, fed by the legend of Dom Fuas Roupinho and by the fame of the image, drew the faithful, kings and sailors who commended their voyages to Our Lady of Nazaré before setting out into the Atlantic.
Even figures from the age of Discovery are said to have worshipped here. Tradition links the name of Vasco da Gama — and other navigators — to devotion to this Virgin, whose cult travelled overseas: there are places called Nazaré in Brazil and in other former Portuguese possessions, evidence of how the devotion spread with the empire.
Every 8 September the great Romaria de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré fills the Sítio with pilgrims, processions, music and celebration, keeping that religious dimension alive. The sanctuary, the Ermida da Memória and the chapels on the headland remain the town's spiritual anchor, the reason why, long before any surfer looked towards Praia do Norte, Nazaré already appeared on the map of Portugal as a destination of faith.
Off Praia do Norte, hidden beneath the sea, lies the secret that would transform Nazaré forever: the Nazaré submarine canyon, the largest in Europe. It is a giant fissure in the ocean floor that runs more than 200 kilometres out to sea and reaches depths of over 4,500 metres, coming extraordinarily close to shore, right in front of the beach.
This geological feature works as a natural funnel. While the seabed on either side of the canyon is relatively shallow and slows the waves down, inside the canyon the deep water lets the swell's energy through with almost no resistance. When a big Atlantic swell arrives, the waves travelling along the canyon move faster than those on the flanks, and as they converge near the shore they combine and interfere constructively, adding their heights together. The result, during the great winter storms, is walls of water tens of metres high breaking over Praia do Norte, a phenomenon that is practically unique on the planet.
For centuries that same force of the sea was seen only as a threat: the Nazaré coast was feared by fishermen, and many lives were lost in its waters. Nobody imagined that the fury of the Atlantic, channelled by the canyon, would end up as the town's greatest tourist draw. All it needed was someone bold enough to ride those waves.
The turning point came in November 2011. The American surfer Garrett McNamara, towed in by jet ski, rode a wave at Praia do Norte estimated at some 24 metres (78 feet), which was ratified as the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed. The images went around the world and, overnight, Nazaré stopped being known only for its sanctuary and its beach and became the global mecca of big-wave surfing.
From then on, the world's best big-wave surfers have made the pilgrimage to Nazaré every winter. The record kept falling: the Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa surfed a wave of about 24.4 metres (80 feet), recognised in 2018, and the German Sebastian Steudtner raised the mark to 26.21 metres (86 feet) with a wave surfed on 29 October 2020, ratified by Guinness and the World Surf League as the current record. Even larger measurements, around 28-29 metres, are pending official confirmation. Every big-wave season, between October and March, thousands of spectators crowd the Sítio cliff beside the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo to watch the show.
Today Nazaré lives a fascinating synthesis of its two souls. It is still a fishing town with its drying racks, its sete saias and its Marian sanctuary; and it is, at the same time, the world capital of giant waves, with its surf museum in the fort, its surfers turned local heroes and its economy reshaped by tourism. From Dom Fuas's deer to Steudtner's record, from faith to adrenaline, the story of Nazaré is that of a town that has always looked out at the same wild Atlantic, first with fear and devotion, and now with awe as well.