The Quinta da Aveleira
Inserted in a unique natural landscape, this farm is located in Távora, in the county of Tabuaço, right in the heart of the Douro Region. Enjoy the comfort of home, in a special nook of the Douro, be dazzled by the natural landscape and lose yourself in the atmosphere of a true traditional Douro house.
The oldest references about Quinta da Aveleira date back to the 12th century, when Earl D. Henrique donated several territories to the neighboring monastery of São Pedro das Águias, in the orbit of which the estate remained for a long period.
The housing building was rebuilt in the first half of the 18th century by the canon and Dean of the Porto Cathedral, D. Jerónimo de Távora and Noronha Leme Cernache. It is possible that Nicolau Nasoni, an artist closely linked to the Dean, contributed to the requalification work carried out at the time, but there is no certainty about this eventual participation. The Quinta was acquired by Artur Santos Parente and his wife Deolinda in the 19th century, being the object of another intervention, as it was in ruins. Later, already in the second generation, in 1989 a fire destroyed the property, whose recovery began in 1999 with the aim of transforming the house into Housing Tourism, linked to the Quinta's winery. The third generation dedicated itself to the total recovery of the tourism house and its exterior surroundings, always taking care to recover and preserve the historic identity of the Farm.
It is an L-shaped property, whose floors, two and four, adapting to the slope of the land. The spans with straight lintel and without any ornament make up a refined architecture, from which the coat of arms was removed at the beginning of the 20th century, the only sign of the power and prestige of its owners. The chapel, located in the smaller body, is distinguished in height, and is delimited by pilasters, ending in an interrupted curved pediment.
The portal, with a straight lintel, is topped by a cut-out frame, surmounted by a window with a counter-curved finish. The altarpiece inside is recent, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. Some dates, inscribed in certain elements of other dependencies of the farm, allow us to understand that the properties related to the production of wine had constructions in 1794 and that the tank of this warehouse was built in 1873. In addition to the historical and architectural value of the building, the vineyards, planted in the vast area of the farm, all of which are organized in steep slopes, are particularly noteworthy.
