WILD AT ART
ALISON JONES discovers Portugal’s hidden creative side far from the tourist traps
THE breathtaking Palacio da Lousa has not always been a boutique hotel, but it has a long history of dealing with unexpected guests. Back in March 1811, the Marechal Messena, commander of the Napoleonic troops, was looking forward to a fine dinner at the manor in Lousa.
But he suffered a sudden loss of appetite after hearing of the French army’s defeat by the combined English and Portuguese forces at the Battle of Foz de Arouce. Forget the food. He promptly fled. The Duke of Wellington, the winner in the fight, rode into Lousa and sat down to enjoy his vanquished foe’s meal.
It is a tale that’s still fondly recounted at the Palacio. It doesn’t take an army to secure a reservation in its dining hall nowadays, a phone call will generally do.
While there, it is worth tearing your eyes away from the food, though, to enjoy the splendour of the surroundings of the 18th century building, the former home of the Viscondessa do Espinhal, a famous benefactress of the town.
In the evening, when the mercury has been hitting 30ºC, the lure of the terrace outside, with its views of the hotel’s terraced gardens and the mountains beyond, is hard to resist, especially with a glass of one of the many fine, locally produced wines in hand.
It is in those mountains that tourists can find a very different type of accommodation. Lousa serves as gateway to the 26 Schist Villages. These micro-communities date back to the 16th century and are named after the stone the houses and pathways are built from.
They cluster in the Serra above Lousa and were originally homes for the poorer people of the region, who relied on the natural grazing there for their livestock.
It was a hard life, isolated and lacking in amenities. By the middle of the last century, the younger generations were abandoning the villages in favour of the modern comforts and better job prospects elsewhere.
Ironically, it was isolation that brought people back to the Schist Villages in the 1960s, as hippies looked for somewhere they could drop off the map. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, there has been a concerted effort to bring life back to these ghost villages, to repair the crumbling homes using traditional techniques, and to rehabilitate the communities.
They have become a network where tourists seeking an alternative to swimming pools and sun loungers can come and stay, cosying into the rebuilt houses, now fully supplied with electricity and internet connections.
Surrounded by nature, the villages offer countless opportunities for hiking, mountain biking or trail running through the Serra, rafting or canoeing on the rivers, even paragliding from the highest peaks.
In the villages large enough to support a store, local crafts and produce are sold, including dark honey and Talasnicos, a type of cake peculiar to the region made from chestnuts, almonds and honey.
The international artistic community discovered the appeal of the Schists far earlier than adventurous holidaymakers. Kerstin Thomas, a German student attending the University of Coimbra in Central Portugal, came to the village of Cerdeira back in 1988. A wood carver, she was looking for somewhere to practise her art, but also wanted to save the buildings she found before they crumbled.
Only intending to stay for a short while, she has instead spent a lifetime at Cerdeira. For the past 11 years she has run the Elementos A Solta (Art Meets Nature) – a four-day programme of courses, workshops and demonstrations that takes over the whole village, and attracts around 1,000 visitors. The festival is
kept deliberately intimate to suit the surroundings.
Even outside this weekend of concentrated creativity, there are opportunities to visit and learn from guest artists in residence. A Japanese master ceramicist has even built his own kiln there so he can come back to give classes.
Grouped together with the Schist Villages are central Portugal’s other great secret, the praias fluviais (river beaches). With the coast an hour’s drive away, they are a delightful alternative place to cool down on a searing hot day.
They range from watering holes that are literally off a beaten track, with nothing more than a rope tied to a tree by way of an amenity, to large stretches of river complete with changing rooms, space for water sports and even lifeguards.
One to seek out is the River Beach that lies beneath the ancient ramparts of the Castelo da Lousa. The crystal-clear waters are overlooked by the Restaurante O Burgo, definitely worth booking a table at to enjoy food prepared using the bounty of the region, including wild boar, rabbit, deer and old goat marinated in red wine.
This is an area of Portugal rich in history, heritage, arts and culture.
The crowds head for the beaches, yacht marinas, golf courses, villas and bars of the Algarve – and that’s fine if that’s your thing.
Tell you what, let’s keep the hidden Portugal secret a while longer. I won’t tell if you don’t...