Common Treasures: junho 2013

All battles are lost

     Below is a sequence of photographs of the reconstitution of a battle between the Napoleonic (French) and the Portuguese armies and his main ally (the English). This international event takes place every year at Almeida (Portugal). This historical village was the scenery of several battles for the Independence, from the first centuries of the Foundation until the first decade of the19th century (French Invasions). Until the 70s-80s (20th century), it was still possible to find cannonballs, uniform buttons, pieces of several weapons, coins and medals in the fields around the fortress.
     In some years the reconstitution is made during the day, in other years is made at night, counting with the participation of people (figurants) from several European countries. In the last two years, the event took place at night and the photographs that I took have very low quality. In 2011, I was wounded in one of my feet and I couldn’t even walk, I crawled among the mob… the photographs show mainly blurred silhouettes and lots of heads of the viewers who were standing in front of me. In 2012, I was able to position myself in a good spot to watch the battle (upon one of the three gates of the fortress)… but too far away from the battle field.
     The castle was destroyed during the 3rd French Invasion (1810), but the walls of the fortress, with the shape of an eight-pointed star, are still intact. The aerial view is really impressive.
Some of these photographs were taken by me, but the most part were taken by my brother, Kim. I only found photographs from 2006 (August 28), though I know he photographed this event every year until his death (January 2011). Probably, the photographs from the previous and following years were in the damaged hard disks or in the SD cards stolen from his car…