Among the examples in other countries, Reddit, a computer game or a finalist of the Song Festival… Leiria thanks the fame.
“Leiria does not exist”. Probably seen this sentence somewhere on the internet. And even if it is not very attached to the digital world, you may have seen a motorway, on a advertising panel.
The Portuguese know very well that Leiria exists. And by this time, thousands of foreigners have also confirmed that the city is there, right in downtown Portugal.
But, after all, how this mito About Leiria does not even exist? The portal went to peek.
First, a reference to other countries: Bielefeld (Germany), Drenthe (Netherlands), Acre (Brazil), Wyoming (USA), Tlaxcala (Mexico) – all these cities do not exist, according to some jokes.
But now only about Leiria. Node Reddit, In 2020, a video of the user captain_tuga was published, in which the district Leiria disappears. Without explanation. The creator says he was inspired by an image where Leiria really appears.
The joke began to spread.
The following year, the computer game Euro Truck Simulator 2 had a new Iberian map; And in these new routes, however much it led to A1, the truck (in the game) never passed the way out to Leiria. Leiria did not enter this new map installed in the game.
In the following months new accounts have been multiplying on social networks, hashtags, memes and many other content. Everything around “Leiria does not exist.” Even Leirienses did that.
We were in COVID-19 peaks. There were a lot of people with no much to do.
“Leiria doesn’t exist” became the central theme in a academic work of a group of students of the Bachelor of Audiovisual and Multimedia, from the School of Social Communication of the Polytechnic of Lisbon.
At the end of 2023, the video that starts this article emerged. The Leininse Inês only, Finalist of this year’s Song Festival at RTP, released the song.
Guilherme Fonseca, humorist and writer, returned to the theme: his book Must be, must It has some of the most interesting/known/stapafurdia negative theories. “Leiria doesn’t exist” there, of course.
Last year, the Commercial radio He highlighted this myth. And the concept has become even more popular.
However, this false idea, which has already toured the whole country and not only, should even make Leiria have more visitors. Just to confirm that there is.
