Almaseda entity encounter — 1954

The Almaseda story entered circulation through a letter or article in Diário de Lisboa in late September 1954. Its author claimed to be César Cardoso and described a landing near the Gardunha hills in the Castelo Branco region. The widely repeated catalogue version dates the supposed event to September 24 at 10 a.m., but the subsequent history shows that the named witness and the story's provenance cannot be accepted at face value. In the invented narrative, a vehicle failure and buzzing sound preceded the descent of a shining object. Two exceptionally tall metallic-looking figures reportedly collected vegetation or stones in a bright container and gestured for the observers to board. The witnesses declined, and the object allegedly departed vertically with sparks. Retellings disagree over its spherical or saucer shape, the beings' height and the number of accompanying motorists. Portuguese researcher Joaquim Fernandes traced a follow-up in the same newspaper, dated October 1, 1954. It identified Cardoso's nephew, Francisco António, whose surname appears in variant spellings, as the letter's author and reported his admission that the story was fabricated. Attention to the village's poor road access was among the stated motives. The original sensational account spread abroad much more widely than the correction. The plate therefore presents letter-writing and road-access context, with no actual giants or landed craft implied.