Navigating the excessive slopes of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela in midwinter requires severe negotiation with the weather, however my information, João Pedro Sousa, makes it look easy. Angling his lean body into the wind, he digs his plastic snow-shoes right into a steep drift and pauses, scanning the white ridgeline. He’s in search of mariolas – small cairns of rocks, fused by ice, that can point out our onward path. “The panorama adjustments each day so you need to discover ways to learn it afresh,” he says, setting off once more. “Presently of yr, nature is a real artist.”
I plod inelegantly in his wake, nonetheless clumsy within the frames clipped to my boots to maintain me from sinking into the powder. At a quartzite outcrop rippled with rose and amber, we pause and drink within the view. Beneath us, cupped within the glacial scar of the Zêzere valley, is the terracotta-roofed city of Manteigas – based within the twelfth century and at present the modest hub for tourism within the area. Forward, on the horizon, João Pedro factors out mainland Portugal’s highest peak, the 1,993-metre Torre, house to a small ski resort suited to freshmen. “This area is filled with surprises,” he grins.
As head of actions for Casa das Penhas Douradas, a design-led resort created in 2006 and impressed by Alpine lodges, João Pedro leads treks by way of the massif in all seasons. Greater than 100 miles of trails prolong from the property, following outdated shepherd paths into pine forests, round lagoons and throughout barren passes stacked with big granite boulders – the remnants of the final ice age, scattered like a large’s deserted toys. That is wild nation – recognised in 2020 by Unesco as a global geopark for its outstanding biodiversity and geology – however the human story is equally wealthy.
The resort is a renovated 100-year-old sanatorium, its 17 birch-panelled rooms and suites gazing eastwards to the rising solar. All have huge sliding home windows and doorways to let within the healing mountain air in the course of the milder months. Down the principle hall, main from one log fire-warmed sitting room to a different, a gallery of sepia images remembers the pioneering 1881 expedition by the Lisbon Geographic Society to this excessive plateau, in search of a spot to deal with the scourge of tuberculosis.
“The refined air, pure water and protein-rich eating regimen right here labored wonders for sufferers. For a interval at first of the twentieth century, this was Portugal’s reply to the Swiss well being resorts of St Moritz or Davos,” João Pedro tells me after we are again on the lodge, warming up with apple cake and carqueja mountain tea. The chalets peppering the encircling slopes definitely look as if they’ve been plucked from northern Europe, with steep roofs, sunrooms and occasional fairytale prospers, like finials or turrets. “Constructed from stone, not timber, although,” João Pedro clarifies. “The fashion is blended with our Lusitanian mountain structure.”
For the remainder of my keep, the Serra is a violently shaken snow globe, the whiteout stopping protected mountain climbing and forcing an intensive exploration of the resort as a substitute. I shuffle between the indoor sauna and bath-temperature swimming pool; hunt down the resident masseuse for a totally undeserved sports activities therapeutic massage; and take pleasure in a collection of three-course meals the place I pattern the area’s well-known Iberian pork – all the time tender and expertly sauced. Afternoons are seen out with a glass of port and a well-thumbed tome on mountaineering from the library, a lived-in area charmingly embellished with vintage snowboarding paraphernalia. The pièce de résistance of the property? The Nordic-style picket sizzling tub, which I guide for a late-night soak after the storm subsides, the celebrities winking down at me by way of spindrift and steam.
In addition to injecting some panache into the native tourism scene, I uncover the founders of the resort have been pivotal in saving a dying mountain craft: burel cloth, a thick, water resistant weave constituted of bordaleira sheep’s wool and used for shepherds’ capes for the reason that center ages. “I fell in love with the native materials when creating the upholstery for the resort – it’s amazingly powerful and versatile,” proprietor Isabel Costa tells me, as we tour her warehouse of whirring vintage looms on the outskirts of Manteigas. “9 textile mills had already gone out of enterprise when this one closed – I knew we had to purchase it.”
In 2010, the mill reopened because the Burel Factory, with a contemporary directive: vibrant colors, trendy designs and new purposes as tactile wall artwork and furnishings coverings, in addition to vogue. Isabel was capable of rehire skilled artisans, who in flip skilled a brand new technology of craftspeople. I meet a few of them within the Room of Mild, the place staff stand earlier than nice home windows reeling bolts of fabric to test for skipped stitches. “Generations of Manteigas ladies have labored on this enterprise,” seamstress Marta Neves tells me. “It’s delicate work, and with the amount of bespoke commissions now coming in, each day is completely different.”
Owing to the success of her preliminary tasks, Isabel was capable of develop additional, opening the city’s first five-star resort in 2018, Casa de São Lourenço, with a 3rd property presently within the works. The material of native life has been rewoven within the course of: with increasing job alternatives, younger individuals are selecting to remain and construct lives. The native college has even reopened. As we speak, burel retailers sit on Lisbon and Porto’s most upmarket thoroughfares, popularising a local artwork kind – and a vacation spot – lengthy missed. “It was my husband who first fell in love with Manteigas. The character, the folks – it’s like nowhere else in Portugal,” Isabel says.
I keep on within the small city itself, checking into Casa das Obras, a time-warp mansion that has been within the noble Ribeiro de Portugal household since its building between 1770 and 1825, serving as a guesthouse for the previous 20 years. Right here, historical past is palpable. Stern-looking ancestors of the present proprietor, Maria Amélia, look down from oil work lining the monumental stone staircase. Decrease chambers embody a tapestried billiards room and bar, whereas the upstairs breakfast room – a dwelling museum of antiques, trinkets and heavy drapes – boasts authentic ceiling artwork. The bedrooms are underwhelming compared, however there’s a fairly backyard blooming with camellias, and the placement is unbeatably central.
Not that there’s an excessive amount of of Manteigas to discover. One twisting lane of commerce provides up a memento store stacked with knitted socks and wool slippers; a bakery well-known for creating the city’s signature candy deal with, the syrupy pastel de feijoca; and a few delis promoting wheels of creamy Serra de Estrela sheep’s cheese. The good treasure of the city is its appears to be like, its cobbled streets and snow-dusted church buildings framed in all instructions by dramatic valleys and forested peaks, all seemingly ripped from a storybook.
Come summer season, the neighborhood shall be buzzing with hikers and adrenaline junkies – biking, paragliding, climbing and ATV buggy rides can all be organised right here, with info on the little vacationer workplace. However for now, throughout its coldest months, Manteigas insists on guests slowing down – filling their lungs with crisp air, lining their stomachs with hearty delicacies and exploring scenic mountain trails when Mom Nature permits.
The journey was supported by Casa das Penhas Douradas, the place rooms begin at €189 B&B, together with guided hikes and a tour of the Burel Manufacturing unit. Rooms at Casa das Obras begin at €55 B&B. Manteigas will be reached by way of taxi (30min) or twice-daily bus from the city of Belmonte, which is linked to Lisbon by direct practice (3h 50min).
