House in Portugal

A house in Portugal

Our project started in May 2005 when we first saw a plot near the historic city of Coimbra. We were shown the plot by an expatriate Englishman, Steve Bridge, who sells property with his Portuguese partner Abel Gaspar.

We were immediately struck by the view and the charm of the situation, opposite a little isolated cemetery on a cobbled road. The plot was covered with wild vegetation including arbutus trees, daphne, umbrella pines (Pinus pinea) and mediterranean buckthorn (Rhamnus alaternus).

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The line of bushes shows the front of the plot. The part in front belongs to the village, and is used as a car park for the cemetery.road frontage

The cobbled road descends very steeply to the church.cobbled road

The cemetery gate has a wasps' nest inside the lock. It obviously isn't visited very often.cemetery

There was bracken growing everywhere.bracken

There were also Pinus pinea, the umbrella pine, and Pinus pinaster, the maritime pine.garden

This is the view westwards. The sea is somewhere behind those hills.view from plot