Tradition says that the recipe of the Alfeizerão sponge cake has its origin in the Monastery of Saint Mary of Coz, a female Cistercian convent founded in the 12th century by D. Fernando, the abbot of Alcobaça in Coz, a few kilometres away from Alcobaça.
Due to the persecution of the religious orders and the consequent closing down of the convent in the early 19th century, some of the nuns took refuge in Alfeizerão and passed on the recipe to a few women who lived there.
Alfeizerão is the birthplace of the nobleman and knight Vitorino Froes, a friend of King D. Carlos who came here often, dividing his time between the property in Alfeizerão and a house in S. Martinho do Porto.
