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CHOICE · EXPERIMENTARY · TAKE

A notebook.
Your findings.

Up to six proposals of Cabeceiras, in your own order, to do it at home, in company or on a break.

3 de 6 propostas escolhidas · faça-as ao seu ritmo.

PROPOSTA 1 DE 3 · Crafts and memories

Compare two portraits of Faia

Faia · sacred art, 2025

Roots and light renew a chapel

Olive-tree roots shaped the new altar and ambo in the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Amparo. The Archdiocese of Braga’s report of 6 October 2025 attributes the work to Atelier Amadeus and describes a refurbishment centred on the altar. A suspended cross forms part of the element called Corpo de Luz. Parish priest Rui Filipe Marques Araújo explained the lighting’s symbolism: groups of lights refer to the Trinity, the Evangelists and the Apostles. The publication also highlights the contribution of artists, technicians, workers and the community. The intervention shows heritage continuing to gain new forms and meanings; the 2025 report does not give visiting hours. The account presents the celebration, presided over by José Cordeiro, as a gathering of Faia with the communities of Arco de Baúlhe and Vila Nune. The choice of roots also receives a religious interpretation: according to the priest, transforming previously discarded material expresses renewal and redemption. This is the symbolic reading attributed to him in the report, distinct from the description of the materials. To understand the work, we can look at both layers: how it was made and the meaning given to it.

Vamos experimentar?

  1. Read the history of the chapels described in 1758 and this reading about the intervention of 2025.
  2. On a sheet, separate what each source describes: location and relationships with the community; materials, light and artistic creation.
  3. Write down a question that remains unanswered. The old reference does not allow dating each part of the current building.

A comparison of sources to make at home; does not require access to the interior of the chapel.

Open a história e os seus recursos →
Sources of this proposal

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

PROPOSTA 2 DE 3 · Read the landscape through the plants

Try observing

Hillside crops · olive botany

One leaf, two sides

The municipality’s landscape description includes olive trees on the hillsides of Cabeceiras. The cultivated olive has leaves that are grey-green above and silvery-grey beneath, where hairs grow. Its small flowers have four white petals joined at the base. The fruit is the olive, an oil-rich drupe. The University of Évora’s description follows the change from green to reddish and dark shades during ripening, but also mentions forms that remain green when ripe. Colour alone does not tell the fruit’s whole story. The connection from tree to olive oil continues in the story of the Ramil oil mill. The profile distinguishes the cultivated olive from its wild form, known in Portuguese as zambujeiro. The latter is described as having smaller leaves and fruits and thorny lower branches. This comparison shows why a single feature, such as the silvery underside of a leaf, does not explain every difference. The olive is evergreen: it retains foliage throughout the year. You can therefore return to the same tree in different seasons and compare leaves, flowers and fruits, without expecting to find them all at once.

An elongated green olive leaf with a pale central vein and other leaves behind it.
An olive leaf photographed in Stutensee, Germany, in 2011. Botanical illustration, not an observation from Cabeceiras. This view does not show both sides of the same leaf.
Photography: H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0
About this photograph

Date given at source: . Source consulted on 2026-11-07. EXIF orientation, proportional resizing and WebP conversion; no retouching or clipping of the file.

Request removal or correct the photo credit

Vamos experimentar?

  1. Observes the photograph: draw the contour and the central nerve of the sheet.
  2. The image does not show the two sides of the same sheet. Separate what you see from what the text explains on the lower face.
  3. If you observe an olive tree throughout the year, record separately leaves, flowers and fruits, without taking off material.

An activity to try at your own pace, without collecting specimens.

Open a história e os seus recursos →
Sources of this proposal

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

PROPOSTA 3 DE 3 · Life you do not always see

A Transforming Family

Occurrence mentioned in the environmental document

The Iberian wolf

The environmental assessment of the municipal master plan records a wolf pack in the area, based on ICNF information. This reflects Cabeceiras’s ecological importance; it is not a promise of a sighting. Learning about this presence does not require searching for the animals or revealing their shelters. The national platform links a shortage of wild prey with livestock consumption and conflict with pastoral communities. It presents protecting flocks and restoring natural prey as complementary parts of conservation. A pack is also a family that changes. The platform describes a breeding pair, offspring from different years and sometimes other related adults. The group defends a territory, but its composition changes through births, growth and dispersal. In the general cycle described for Portugal, pups are born in late April or May. During summer, rendezvous sites become centres of family activity; in autumn, the young begin accompanying adults as they travel and hunt. This is not an observation calendar for a particular pack. As they grow, some young wolves leave their original group to seek a territory, a mate or another pack. Others stay longer when enough food is available. A count at one moment therefore does not describe an unchanging family: social life follows the annual cycle and the opportunities offered by the landscape.

Vamos experimentar?

  1. Draws a family group with adults and pups from the description.
  2. Add arrows to represent growth and output of young people from the group.
  3. Compare two moments of the drawing: what would change in a countdown?

General biology scheme; it does not represent the number of wolves in a local pack.

Open a história e os seus recursos →
Sources of this proposal

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

YOUR LOCAL GUIDE

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