20160513HorseBreedFarmPortugal

May 13, 2016, Friday — Lusitanian Horse Breeding Farm, Portugal

Portuguese flag

statue to El Cid in Seville

Pavilion of Seville for the 1929 World's Fair

wall covered with bougainvillea

We left Sevilla and drove through the countryside to Almodovar and then to Ourique and finally to Brito Paes ranch. On the way Juan-Jo told us to notice the stork nests on poles in a bird-watching area. That was about 1 1/2 hours from the border. Sometimes we could see an adult stork tending to a baby.

going over the Odiel River

driving from Seville, Spain to the Portuguese border

crossing over to Portugal

driving from the Portuguese border to Almodovar, Portugal

cork trees driving from Almodovar to Ourique, Portugal

our exit to Ourique

very out of focus stork’s nest — these were all over the place, but I never could get a good photo

notice for the upcoming pork festival

pork is king

driving to Ourique

On the way to and from Brito Paes ranch we passed many cork farms, where cork trees were grown and the cork bark harvested. The cork tree (a variety of oak) trunks are marked with the last digit of the year in which they were harvested. That part of the tree's bark can be re-harvested nine years later without damage to the tree.

pile of cut cork bark

arriving in Ourique, Portugal

driving from Ourique, Portugal to the nearby horse breeding farm

driving from Ourique, Portugal to the nearby horse breeding farm

The Brito Paes ranch is run by María Joseph with the help of her 4 sons and a daughter. Brito Paes ranch has 30 mares, 5 studs, and 150 cows that graze on 800 acres. The mares are bred every year, and 10-12 foals are born each year. When the colts are 11 months old they are sent to the field. The ranch mostly exports horses to Scandinavia, Brazil and Europe for riding. Maria gets $3000-$4000 and up for a horse, but 48% of the price of the horse goes for taxes.

During the bloodless Carnation Revolution of 1974 local communists took over the farm and Maria and her family were given 15 days to pack and leave their home. For four years the Communists occupied her home and sold everything she hadn't taken along. They burned the registration books, but there were copies in Lisbon so she could get some of the line of horses back again. Maria had to buy their own horses back and buy more cows.

Maria Joseph, the matriarch of the horse breeding farm

foyer of Doña Maria Joseph's home

living room

dining room

kitchen

birds in Doña Maria Joseph's aviary

Doña Maria Joseph and helper show off embroidered goods for sale made by neighborhood women

One of María Joseph’s sons demonstrated the farm’s Lusitanian horses to us.

Lusitanian horses

one of Doña Maria Joseph's sons rides one of their Lusitania horses

we exclaim over a thick chunk of cork bark

Doña Maria Joseph offers us tea, coffee, and cookies

Juan-José Perez and Doña Maria Joseph discuss the history of the ranch

After the ranch, we drove on to the hotel Mundial in Lisbon.

The cork tree trunks are marked with the last digit of the year in which they were harvested. That part of the tree's bark can be re-harvested eight years later.

The upper trunk of this tree was harvested in 2013, and can't be re-harvested until 2021. The lower part was harvested in 2008, and is due for re-harvest now.

May 13, 2016, Friday — Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon

Lisbon is on the north bank of the Tagus River. Portuguese know Lisbon as the “cidade das sete colinas” (the city of the seven hills) since legend says that the city was originally built over seven hills. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the oldest in Western Europe, predating other modern European capitals such as London, Paris and Rome by centuries. Julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, it was captured by the Moors in the 8th century. In 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural center of Portugal. During the Neolithic period, the region was inhabited by Pre-Celtic tribes, who built religious and funerary monuments, megaliths, dolmens and menhirs, which still survive in areas on the periphery of Lisbon. The Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population, thus giving rise to Celtic-speaking local tribes such as the Cempsi.

Built on seven hills, Lisbon has been Portugal’s capital since the 13th century, and the area around the steepest hill, Sao Jorge, was first settled by Phoenicians in the 12th century BC. They were followed by Carthaginians, Romans, several Germanic tribes, and Visigoths. In AD 714, the Moors captured Lisbon, and held it for the next 400 years.

Although the first fortifications on Lisbon's Castelo hill are known to be no older than the 2nd century BC, recent archaeological finds have shown that iron age people occupied the site from the 8th to 6th centuries BC. This indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects. Archaeological excavations made near the Castle of St. George (Castelo de São Jorge) and Lisbon Cathedral indicate a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, and it can be stated with confidence that a Phoenician trading post stood on a site now the center of the present city, on the southern slope of the Castle hill. The sheltered harbor in the Tagus River estuary was an ideal spot for an Iberian settlement and would have provided a secure harbor for unloading and provisioning Phoenician ships. The Tagus settlement was an important center of commercial trade with the inland tribes, providing an outlet for the valuable metals, salt and salted-fish they collected, and for the sale of the Lusitanian horses renowned in antiquity.

Lisbon suffered a massive earthquake and tsunami in 1755 which killed an estimated 30,000-40,000 inhabitants of a population estimated at 200,000-275,000, and destroyed 85% of the city’s structures. Shaken by his narrow escape from the earthquake, the King Joseph I abandoned the city and left reconstruction up to his Prime Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, the 1st Marquess of Pombal, who became a hero for his reconstruction of the city.

statue of Christ the King as you come in to Lisbon, Portugal

cemetery

the Águas Livres aqueduct over the Alcantara valley, completed in 1744

Praca Marques do Pombal - he is looking toward the area of Lisbon that he reconstructed following the disastrous 9-9.5 earthquake and tsunami of 1755

Restauradores statue — commemorating those who reconstructed the city following the disastrous 9-9.5 earthquake and tsunami of 1755

streetcar and Statue of King John I

Statue of King John I

ceramic tiling on homes

Castelo de São Jorge (Castle of Saint George) above our hotel

views from our hotel window

view from our hotel window of Martim Moniz square

more views from our hotel

Castelo de São Jorge (Castle of Saint George) above our hotel

hats, purses, fans, aprons, ties — all made with cork!

Rua Augusta Arch

the Portuguese flag

Ingrid Yule in front of a lovely doorway

Castle at our hotel, Hotel Mundial, made with sugar, egg whites, flour, and cream of tartar. One of the two hotel restaurants was ABYSMAL, but the other was fine.

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