The Portalegre Conventual and Traditional Sweets Fair returns this month to the Monastery of São Bernardo, with this edition featuring over 40 exhibitors, the municipality announced today.

Promoted by the city council, the 22nd edition of the fair will take place between April 19 and 21, with the participation of over 40 confectioners from various parts of the country.

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Speaking to the Lusa agency, the vice-president of the Portalegre City Council, Laura Galão, explained that the event will also feature two confectionery workshops, one with the participation of chef Cristiano Louro, from the Portalegre Hotel and Tourism School, and another promoted by chef Carla Parreira, from the Convento do Espinheiro, in Évora.

Once known as the "city of seven convents", due to its religious tradition, Portalegre has a vast number of conventual sweet recipes with remote origins that are kept under lock and key by the confectioners.

At the event, you can savour various sweets, such as barrigas de freira (nun's bellies), pães de rala (grated bread), toucinhos-do-céu (bacon from heaven), fidalgos (noblemen), ovos-moles (soft eggs) or castanhas de ovos (egg chestnuts).

The Portalegre egg sweets, Portalegre almonds, Belém and Tentúgal pastries, almond lamprey, fartes (fried dough) and queijinhos do céu (little cheeses from heaven) are other sweets that attract visitors.

During the event, according to Laura Galão, there will also be a photography exhibition paying posthumous tribute to Judite Cardoso, considered "the confectioner par excellence" of the municipality of Portalegre.

Musical entertainment will also be present, with opera, fado and Alentejo folk singing performances, among other cultural moments, through the cultural associations based in that region.

"This year we also have a different entertainment dedicated to traditional tales, which we call flavours with stories. During the fair, we will have a storyteller to liven up the event and tell stories to visitors", she said.

The opening of the Portalegre Conventual and Traditional Sweets Fair is scheduled for 6:30 pm on the 19th of this month.

According to the municipality, the daily entrance fee to the fair will be one euro.

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