Paper short abstract:

The main objective in this paper is to show how national and local elites collaborated in order to build the image of the fishing community of Nazaré to serve both as national icon in the process of nationbuilding, and local of tradition for the promotion of tourism and local identity against the forces of modernization.

Paper long abstract:

Nazare is a small town of nearly 10 000 inhabitants, on the Atlantic coast, a hundred kms to the north of Lisbon.

For more than a century, the fishing community has lived from tourism and fishing. The rhythm of the town has been determined by this reality, and the population has always organized their lives in order to take the most advantage of the opportunities created by these two economic activities.

Tourism has been, for this reason, not a disruptive activity of tradition, as it is usually seen, but a fundamental element that must be taken in to account when we consider the local culture, social organization and the economy of the town.

Considered the most picturesque fishing town of the Portuguese coast, Nazare played the role of important national icon; and its fishing community, seen as the authentic representatives of a nation proud of its past history as a land of sailors.

From the middle of the nineteenth century until the present, the fishing community was the object of the intellectual and political elite of Portugal. Celebrated by painters and writers by its unique humane and physical landscape, the local political leaders have always been very active in promoting this image in the country and abroad.