This house belonged to my family since the 19th century. It’s where my mother, my grandfather and my mother’s grandfather were born…
Over the years the house was adapted to the needs of the family, from a small one-storey house to the current L-shaped appearance, with a cellar on the ground floor, a large kitchen and a small stable to shelter the animals, witch had been needed by a rural family at the end of the 19th century.
As far as I can remember, the house was surrounded on the west and south facades, extending almost to the back of the estate, by a high arbour made up with vines from different white and red grapes: loureiro, treixadura, caíño and albariño. Monolithic granite posts can be seen throughout the estate, holding up the vine arbours and reminding us that, in the past, the vines were a way more common and that the cellar on the ground floor was used to store a “generous” production of wine, probably destined for sale in addition to its own consumption. In the garden, you’ll find a foot of the last winepress wich got used in the cellar.
With time, the vines dissapeared and my grandfather, who inherited his mother’s house, also inherited his father’s trade, that of a blacksmith. In front of the house’s main doorway was the forge of which the only remains that I knew of, are the large stones that made up its walls and which today are scattered around the estate with different and varied functions.