Portuguese insomnia

The idea is not to talk about me but about a place that touched me so much that it disturbed my nights. It’s been months that I have this address lurking in a corner of my head. It ticks all the boxes of MyMoonSpots DNA. Rusticity of whitewashed buildings delicately refreshed, simplicity of a decoration however long murie and worked under the guidance of the architect Eduardo Soutra of Moura (Pritsker Prize), and then this place, isolated, wild in the most noble sense in the middle of 800 hectares of olive trees as far as the eye can see. Guaranteed disconnection.
The icing on the cake is the incredible story that accompanies the restoration of this former royal hunting estate that looks like a Brazilian fazenda. It is José Uva, quadra having done a part of its studies in Paris, owner of this haven of peace since 8 generations, who tells it to me, amused. After working in finance in London, he decided to rehabilitate this family estate, a flourishing former farm that had employed up to 200 people in the 19th century, and produced wine, meat, cheese, butter … Property the Count of Monsaraz, it was nationalized in 1975 and abandoned by a state unable to maintain the activity of the place. Transforming this area into a hotel will take him ten years. Because in Sao Lourenço everything is done in the rules of art, olive trees and vines have been fully replanted and rehabilitated and are now harvested and sold, the cows have reappeared and have reclaimed the place. And above all, José makes a point of honor to use the wonderful manna that are the artisans of Alantejo in the field of pottery work, leather for example … Sao Lourenço is not only a hotel. it is a property that lives and whose heart beats to the rhythm of artisans who highlight the materials of yesteryear.

Here slow life makes sense. We listen to the symphony of the wind in the vineyards and olive trees, we go riding in the early morning, in the fog that still colors the trees of a white mother of pearl, we enjoy the produce of the organic garden, we can even be pampered at the spa. A nice crush for this address that is not taken seriously and tells a little, in transparency, the history of Portugal.