In 1945 our grandparents built a house in Sítio dos Lameirinhos, the western slope of Serra da Gardunha that leads down to the River Zêzere, at the end of the village of Barroca. The house and the farm had a housing and commercial purpose. Family life took place on the top floor of the house. On the ground floor, a huge wood oven supplied the bakery where butter, eggs, milk, fruit and other fresh products from the farm were also sold. A large pine forest supplied the firewood for the oven. Halfway down the hill there is a mine, whose waters go downhill through the lameirinhos to the house, located at the bottom.

A little further, the vegetable gardens near the streams and the wood over the river provided local seasonal products and corn for the bread, that was dried in the attic of the house and then crushed in a watermill on the river.

The big garage for the pickup trucks of the company “Transportes do Zêzere”, owned by our Grandfather, was used as a cinema room whenever travelling cinematographs stopped at Barroca.

All these memories are present in the house, restored by us. The continuous sound of water accompanies us all through the stay, reassuring and evoking the history of the Farm.

The structure of the house remained as it always was. The infrastructure was changed and the roof replaced for greater thermal comfort. The bakery, which is now closed for almost fifty years, is today a comfortable living room with walls of schist, a recreational and convivial space. The oven was kept as a fireplace but it is still possible to make bread. On the first floor, five of the six rooms have private bathrooms. Another living room, quieter, with luminous windows to the courtyards, invites us to reading. The upstairs patio is covered by vines until wintertime and its shadow invites us to stay. It leads to the pine forest and the fruit trees, one of which is a huge fig tree that provides shade all year round and figs in July.

On hot days the small tank on the courtyard is ideal to refresh.

The lower courtyard, more intimate, marked by the fountain and a cypress, gives access to the road and the village of Barroca, on the right bank of the River Zêzere, which source is nearby in the mountains of Serra da Estrela. From there you can go to several river pools nearby. You can also take walks through the mountain and along the river and streams, through the tracks of the Great Route of the Zêzere, on foot or by bike.