Montemor-o-Novo

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2008
Bangkok Post
Montemor-o-Novo
HOLIDAY TIME
Local leather cobbler continue to
practice their craft on the back
streets of Mont-O-Mor.
‘Where everything started when the Portuguese
kingdom decided to discover the world’
Story and Photos by ROBERT DAVIS
O
utside the Aeropuerto de Lisboa,
the sun shone bright and the
air was pleasantly fresh. The
breeze off the Tagus River was
strong with autumn and I thought it
would make for good driving weather.
Unsnapping the soft-top off the Jeep, I
rolled it up neatly and secured it to the
roll bar.
"If you get cold I will put it back up,"
I said to Isabella, a friend from Peru
who was traveling with me.
"Do you think it might," she asked in
the Castellano language.
"Not at first, but you never know once
we get into the highlands."
Leaving Lisbon, we crossed the Vasco
da Gamma Bridge and below whitecaps
were flaking the Atlantic. I drove
southeast, changing autopistas a couple
of times and it was not long until we
turned onto the A6 and signs kept indicating how many more kilometers until
Evora. Soon we entered the territory
charted on the map as the Iberian Peninsula; bull-breeding country with plateaus full of scrub pines, salt licks and
rocky hillsides. Sure enough, you could
see the bulls moving slowly under tall
umbrella pine trees.
Outside the jeep the wheat fields of
the Alentejo plains were golden ripe and
we drove past orange groves and big
branched olive trees that looked silvery
in the shining sun.
I wanted to visit some friends in MontO-Mor, a little town just thirty kilometers
before Evora. Mont-O-Mor is built high
up, surrounded by a ring of hills and it
feels like you are in a teacup. On the
eastern front, there is the Castle MontO-Mor and the remains of its walls still
loom high and stretch out along the
hilltop. The physical layout here is a bit
awkward with streets built from cobbled
stone and you are either walking uphill
or downhill, but rarely on even land for
very long. There is very little traffic here,
and one gets the feeling that all of the
young working generation have left for
Lisbon. There are no franchises here
either, but you will pass cafes and bars
on both sides of each street and, of course,
there is a butcher and grocer just about
everywhere too.
Many visitors to Portugal pass right
by Mont-O-Mor on their way to Evora,
a Unesco World Heritage Site. It is easy
to do, because historically speaking Evora
packs a big punch. Celebrated by the
Romans, invaded by the Barbarians, conquered by the Moors and liberated by
Christians, its architecture, a melting
pot of past rulers, is a gem of the Golden
Age.
My friends, Dr. José Barros and his
lovely wife, Maria do Céu, or Dona Maria
as most call her, own the Monte Alentejano Hotel. They also own the farmhouse,
Quinta dos Olhos d’Agua, that they
renovated. At the farmhouse, they rent
out apartment style rooms to friends
and to friends of friends.
Mont-O-Mor where everything started when
the Portuguese Kingdom decided to discover
the world.
K
C
M
Y
E
While Mont-O-Mor serves as the hub
of the axis linking central and south
Portugal, it remains relatively unknown.
However, it was not always like this. It
is said that Mont-O-Mor is where everything started when the Portuguese kingdom decided to discover the world.
Dr. José Barros is a lawyer by trade
and a Portuguese scholar by passion.
His deep bass voice, thick shock of silver
hair and ramrod straight posture, shaped
by years of horse riding, give him an
added air of authority. Dona Maria has
been a teacher for disabled children for
twenty-seven years and also manages
the hotel.
Dinner was served outside on the
hotel patio. The night air was crisp, but
not cold and everyone wore sweaters. A
bottle of Don Mateo rose wine was
brought out in bucket of ice.
When the food came, it came in
bunches and it did not stop coming
until the table was full and another table
had to be brought alongside to accommodate it all. There was a heavy crusted
peasant’s bread still warm from the oven;
big black olives and fresh slabs of butter;
a cheese made from sheep’s milk that
was strong, pungent smelling and very
creamy; black-eyed peas mixed with tuna
fish and hard boiled eggs; bits of bacon
with wild mushrooms and in an olive oil
with dill seed; a rabbit stew with tomatoes
and zucchini; and a codfish that had
been dried and shredded and mixed
with fried sliced potatoes and a raw
onion.
After dinner, espressos and steamed
glasses of brandy were served. Having
an audience brought out the best in Dr.
Barros.
"The voyage of Vasco da Gamma to
discover India was decided right here in
Montemor-o-Novo," he began after lighting a cigarette. "But I imagine what is
most interesting to visitors is the grutas
do escoural. Prehistoric art found in
caves, where probably the most ancient
horses head painting known in Europe.
In the surrounding areas you can find
art from different periods, from
Paleolithic to the Neolithic."
It was late when we arrived at the
finca and Dr. Barros invited me to the
living room for more cognac. Dona Maria
showed Isabella to the guest rooms.
The entire house had once been a
barn and it also served as the living
quarters for the ranch hands. The living
room where we were now standing had
been the stable. Copper kettles and deep
cast iron skillets and a very old scythe
hung from the stonewalls. On the far
side of the room was a heavy wooded
bookcase, Dr. Barros’s library. It was
View of Mont-O-Mor town
from the castle walls.
stocked full of literary classics and works
of poetry printed in Portuguese, Spanish,
French and Italian.
Next morning, I awoke at daybreak
to the sound of a falling rain on the roof.
It was not a big rain, but a light steady
one and I unhitched the large bay doors
that opened out onto the balcony. In
the rain you could literally smell the
heavy dank smell of autumn earth.
Other farmhouses were spread
throughout the plains, their thick red
clay-tile roofs and whitewashed walls
glistening. It seemed to me that each
farmhouse had a little trestle of
grapevines, an olive grove and fruit
orchards. I thought what a good picture
this village might make on a sunny day,
with the sky bright blue and white cumulus clouds overhead, and all the grain
fields bathed in gold with the threshing
machines at work and the green of the
distant cork-oak tree forests.
After a breakfast, it was decided that
Isabella and I should drive out to the
Serra de Ossa for a walk.
"There is a eucalyptus forest high up
in the hills," Dr. Barros said. "It is a very
spiritual walk. You feel as if you are
close to the heavens."
Walking tours in the region are very
popular and for nearly a week, it was
our routine each day to take a walk in a
different part of Alentejo.
Tonight was to be something special.
It was the first night of the Feira de
Colheitas, or Harvest Festival.
The outside air was cool and with a
sweater very pleasant and lanterns were
lit, although the sky was filled with so
many stars that we would not need them.
From the balcony of my room I could
see people, friends and neighbors of Dr.
Barros and Dona Maria, walking up the
long dirt road drive to the Finca, carrying
dishes of food and bottles of wine that
they later said were made from their
own vineyards.
I walked downstairs and out to the
patio. A lamb stew was simmering in a
large crock-pot swinging over the wood
fire grill. Dona Maria handed me a chunk
of the sharp Serpa cheese and a crust of
bread and I sat down with a glass of
chilled muscadet wine beside Don
Manuel.
A group of men, all locals, and all
wearing similar brown derby hats and
sweaters and pleated trousers stopped
by to sing. They called it a choros du
aletajon. It was something special to
hear them singing slowly in chorus to a
rhythm that someone tapped out with
his foot on the stone floor.
Across the patio and through the
crowd, I saw Isabella reclining in a lawn
chair with a glass of red wine in her
hand. A slight breeze swayed a lantern
that hung from the branch of an olive
tree above her head. I would be leaving
the next morning. Isabella had decided
to stay on a little longer.
Local villager working in the fields.
Where to stay
Monte Alentejano Hotel
http://www.montealentejano.com.pt/
What to do?
Wine and Walking tours are very popular in the
Alentenjano Region and can be customized to
the clients schedule.
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