Sirens of the Azores
The mermaid and piracy from the Azorean side of the rail.
Ribeirinha, São Miguel — opening 2030.
Sirens of the Azores · Casa das Sereias e Piratas
is a museum going into a 300 m² warehouse in Ribeirinha, on the north coast of São Miguel, opening in 2030. It tells two stories. The first is the mermaid — not one story but all of them, from Atargatis in Assyria three thousand years ago through medieval church carvings, Camões's Tágides, the sighting on the 1584 Teixeira map, and the Azorean sereia, who is not the Little Mermaid and not quite the Siren either:
A sereia quando canta, canta no pego do mar; tanto navio se perde, oh que tão doce cantar!
When the mermaid sings, she sings in the deep of the sea; so many ships are lost — oh, what sweet singing. — Teófilo Braga, Cantos Populares do Archipelago Açoriano, Porto, 1869
The second is piracy told from the Azorean side of the rail, by the islands that were raided rather than the men who did it, because these islands sat on the treasure route from the Americas for two hundred years. At the centre stands the Golden Mermaid Brig, built by hand. In 2032 a theatre opens beside it — sixty- five seats, an underwater stage, and choreographed mermaid shows running several times a day.
There are no fish. It is not an aquarium and it is not a theme park.
What is in it?
Eight rooms, opening in three stages.
2030 — the museum opens with four
Arrival and the Golden Mermaid Brig: A two-masted brig, twelve feet, built by hand before anyone knew what it would become.
Mermaid mythology and history: Three thousand years of her, and the nine commissioned portraits.
Pirates and mermaids on screen: What three centuries of storytelling did to both of them.
The giftshop: Tails, tricorns, puffy shirts.
2031 — one more
The history of piracy: Both sides of it, on two video walls above a relief map, told by the islands that were raided.
2032 — the theatre, in a building of its own
Weapons: Cutlasses, flintlocks, knives and blunderbusses.
The performance tank: Sixty-five seats, an underwater stage, choreographed mermaid shows several times a day.
The photo set: Take photos with pirates and mermaids with your own cellphone or camera.
The giftshop expands to a retail store: Because by then there is an audience leaving a show together, several times a day
We are opening it the way a village builds anything — as the money comes in, one room at a time, and with the doors open in between.
Why here?
Because these islands were on the route.
For two hundred years the treasure fleets came past the Azores on their way home from the Americas, and so did everyone who wanted to take them. Ribeirinha's own harbour, Porto de Santa Iria, had its access cut into the cliff under a contract signed on 20 May 1525. Wheat went out of it, then oranges. Whaling began there in the second quarter of the eighteenth century, and the stone ramps the whalers hauled up are still visible.
The museum is in the village, not on a tourist road. It is a short walk from a working philharmonic society founded in 1877 and a parish church begun in 1826.
Who owns it?
The Associação de Piratas e Sereias de São Miguel — twenty people in the village. Not the author of the book.
The association owns the building, the collection, and every euro the door takes. It is run by an elected board that can outvote its founder in any quarter, and once already has. The building is leased from the Junta de Freguesia da Ribeirinha on a ten-year lease — publicly owned, in the association's hands.
The book Of the Water is the instrument that funds it. Every copy sold builds a building.
Is there anything like it?
No museum anywhere combines pirates and mermaids. That one is structural — there is no counter-example to produce.
On the theatre we are careful, because the claim is narrower than it first looks: we have found no other museum in Europe built around a resident, choreographed mermaid show running several times a day. There are mermaid performers in Europe — the Mermates perform monthly at a dive centre in Belgium — and there are permanent mermaid theatres in Florida.
A company of performers, on a purpose-built stage, on a daily schedule, as the anchor of a ticketed museum, we have not found.
Can I visit?
Not yet. The first four rooms open in 2030.
What exists now is the association, and joining it is the useful thing you can do today:
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Become a member — €12 a year, with a vote at the general assembly
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Join for life — €120 once, before the museum opens
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Give to the museum fund
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Follow along as an Amigo — free, and we write a few times a year when there is something real to report
Join the Associação and follow what we are doing!