We've stayed at the Casa do Outeiro more times than I can remember. We have kept going back because Dona Ana and Dom João have become friends as well as hosts. We love to hear the family stories such as the one below.
Nobody was pleased. The English family cut off Rooke with the classic penny because he was marrying a foreigner and a Catholic. Sofia fared no better: she was marrying a heretic Protestant! They had to elope to Brazil, where they made a fortune and – surprise, surprise - money seems to have talked and they were taken back into the fold. One of Dona Ana's daughters was given the name Sofia in memory of Sofia Rooke.
We don't have a picture of any of the Rookes but how about this painting of Gaspar de Abreu e Lima Telles de Menezes; isn't he a distinguished-looking ancestor?
Let's take a closer look at this lovely old manor. It dates back at least to the sixteenth century, though the room we stay in may be the remnants of a torreão - a defence and storage tower perhaps almost as old as the country itself.
The kitchen too is in the oldest part of the building. We just love the ancient wooden beams and the copper cooking vessels. Who wouldn't love to make dinner in a place like this?
In the evenings we have often revelled in a roaring log fire in the library. There's something primeval about the lure of fire; the warmth, the life and colour and the light but here it is enhanced by book-lined walls and aged, comfy, leather chairs. Breakfast may be served here in winter.
In the lower hall between the bedroom and the library are more kitchen artefacts. We just love these old, slightly battered copper and brass vessel and containers.
What about breakfast in summer? The tables are then placed outside on a shady veranda. Later in the day you can cool off in the swimming pool or sit out under the sweet chestnut trees in the garden. In autumn there is the joy of the changing leaves.
You might even be lucky enough to arrive when there is one of the many fairs or festivals taking place in the Minho, even in the house itself. But the story of the Feast of Nossa Senhora da Luz is for another time and another post. Keep coming back to the blog to find out how a gallant Abreu e Lima narrowly averted a new War of the Roses!
If you would like to stay in a manor house and exchange stories with a gracious host and perhaps help keep it from falling into disrepair, why not log on to Turihab or Solares de Portugal (Links below.) They both have web sites in English as well as Portuguese. The old fashioned courtesies and the stories the owners can tell you will make your day.
www.turihab.pt
www.solaresdeportugal.pt
Do you have a favourite place to stay in Portugal?
Search
Belmonte synagogue
We are once again in the Beira Baixa town of Belmonte, home of the man who had brought about the evangelisation of Brazil. (http://www.me-n-youinportugal.com/index.php?blog&nid=98) But Catholicism was not the only religion deeply held in Belmonte, Judaism was there too and, just up the hill from the statue of Pedro Álvares Cabral, is the old Jewish quarter of the village.
What I am about to tell you is a story of deeply held faith and extraordinary, almost incredible, tenacity. It starts more than 500 years ago, at the time of the reconquest of Spain by the Catholic Kings, Fernando of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, contemporaries of that same king who had favoured and then forgotten Cabral; Dom Manuel I.
To read the extraordinary story of the Jews of Belmonte, click here
You can see Belmonte with its imposing castle from a long way off. Dominating the region with its 360° view, it was once an outpost built and manned by Portugal's early rulers to defend the state against invasion from Spain. However, unless Portugal's much more powerful neighbour was showing serious aggression, it is unlikely that any Belmonte resident ever met the king or any members of his court - or indeed anyone else from further afield than a few kilometres around - because the settlement was so remote and difficult to reach.
Despite its historic isolation, however, Belmonte is not without history. There is a fascinating reason why we chose to make a special effort to go to there and a curious fact that we discovered upon arrival. To find out first about the curious fact, click here.
The year is almost over and the land in the Minho is being cleared of the detritus of last year's harvest. Whippy strands of grape vine, bereft of leaves, are being swept into piles and set alight. This evening, in the hamlet of Esmorigo, I counted seven spires of smoke coming from fields and gardens. Most of the time, the air being still, the smoke rose straight to the sky, looking like sacrifices made by Abel. In this picture, one or two fires seem to have been set by Cain!
To see more of my thoughts as I walked past Calheiros and Esmorigo, click here.
The Radium Hotel from afarThough the ruin is large, I almost missed it because I was looking for the wrong shape in the wrong place. I had been told that it could be mistaken for a castle, which seemed quite likely as Portugal boasts hundreds of ruined ones atop outcrops with a good view of the surrounding countryside.
The ruin I was searching for, however, turned out to lie well below the crest of a granite hill and to look more like one of the abandoned mills of my native Yorkshire than a castle.
To find out more about this ruin and its curious history, click here.
Between our house and the sea there's a long, rounded mountain ridge. Though its lower slopes are clothed with eucalyptus and pine, it's a bald mountain, the bare granite crown enlivened with just a little scrub in between the boulders. It looks inhospitable, as though no one would choose to live there, yet as we drive through the foothills and start to climb, we see a homemade sign: "Em Cabração, Lítio não." Translated, that reads as, "No Lithium in Cabração."
Cabração is one of several villages that subsist in the Serra D'Arga, villages which though modernised in many ways, still cling tenaciously to tradition. And none of them is happy about the idea of mining on their mountain.
To read more of the Serra and one of the villages which are fighting a threat to mine lithium, click here.
To stay up-to-date with this blog please subscribe to our Newsletter below:
