"It was the appeal of the land and of the ancestral soil fulfilled, lived on and enjoyed", adds João Alarcão, as he introduces us to an independent universe of fleeting precepts, where there are no neglected corners nor words capable of honouring it.
He still recalls the happy homecomings at the end of summer. "The house was rejuvenated by the suddenly satisfied nostalgia of the adults, young people and children who suddenly occupied it. This was the cheerful period of the "summer holidays" of grape harvesting, of concertinas and the singing challenges", the owner recalls, absorbed by the visceral heritage of the house "Olival do Senhor". To this day, it bears the name of an ancient olive grove, the olive oil from which was offered every year "to keep the lamps alight at the 17th century Chapel of the Lord, in the town of Mondim de Basto".
"It's a family home". The assertion hardly seems enough to portray a house that conserves not just its architecture but also memories that linger over time, in a geography of emotions that endow it with "a halo of idiosyncrasies". Rebuilt in the 19th century by his great-grandfather Colonel António da Silva Carvalho Branco, it continues to serve as a safe haven for several generations, preserving the ancestral relationship they have always shared with this place. "During the Portuguese Overseas War, for the two years I was stationed in Mozambique, in Niassa, my companion was a handful of earth from the garden of this house that my mother had sent me." "Obsessions", as he puts it, "but always experienced with the joy that comes from loving our roots."
Our sense of wonder keeps growing, in the same proportion as the worldliness and complexity of this home. Large wine cellars, wine presses, firewood sheds and farming structures give way to rooms with unplastered walls, exposing the schist and granite they are built of. Outside, a sculptural stairway leads up to the bedrooms, the study-library and the living-room on the upper floor, the latter a kind of island of pleasant routines that beckons us to spend evenings around the fireplace.