The name came from Angola to live in an Alentejo estate, and in a way the two geographies are linked to the owners. Tozé was born in the African country, Catarina is the daughter of the previous owner of the property in Barrancão, between Alcácer do Sal and Montemor-o-Novo, known as Herdade dos Cravos Vermelhos and which once functioned as a collective unit of production.
In recent years, the couple got tired of life in the city, put the Lisbon house up for sale, bought the land and moved to the countryside. The change was accompanied by a project almost as large as the 110 hectares: having a rural tourism unit, a large production of organic eggs, vegetables to supply a small restaurant, a pottery workshop with workshops, a shop with selected products, handmade soaps and even a cheese factory of sheep that walk loose around the property.
The hotel opened in the summer of 2019 and occupies the old workers’ houses with four double bedrooms and three apartments (T1 and T2) equipped with kitchen and salamander. The country house environment is breathed in each of them, and all the decoration – in charge of Sofia Albuquerque, from Sal Atelier – privileges the natural materials and transmits a careful simplicity, very slow living. One of the signature pieces is the lamp above the kitchen table of the main house, where breakfasts are served: it is trapped in a dry branch so large that it looks like an entire tree and marks the tone of a division all of it special. In this social area, made in open space, there are still several nooks to read one of the books of Gestalten scattered throughout the space or even give a few touches on the piano, and also a porch with straw awnings by the pool. When the entire homestay is up and running, the idea is that guests in the apartments can go by bike to help themselves in the vegetable garden. Watch out for the dog. In this case, with the chihuahua Ginja, for being so tiny.