Stories of Cabeceiras

The million appears as the most abundant cereal in Alvite’s memory of 1758. But the list continues with rye, target corn, millet, wheat and barley. The parish priest adds beans, hanged wine, olive oil, chestnut, land and fruit.

The enumeration shows a diverse agriculture; it does not give quantities of each harvest. Compare it to Bucos, where the report describes another relationship between cereals. The documents allow to recognize differences without turning impressions of the parish priests into modern statistics.

The same report places part of the parish on the slopes of Senhora da Orada and another part in a more flat zone, accompanying a small course of water. The list of products thus gains a scenario: fields distributed by different positions in the relief. The text does not, however, relate each culture with a concrete portion.

There is also a difference between harvest and meal. Knowing that cereals, beans, wine or olive oil were produced does not reveal the recipe served in a given house. To get to the kitchen, other sources, such as family memories and preparations documented on the site, must be added.

The municipal survey of 2 of March 2008 describes the mill of Casa do Ramil, in Alvite, fed by Levada do Vale do Moinho, with water removed from the riverside of Petimão. A granite cube led the water to the rotation. The building had two presses and the inventory recorded the deactivation in 2005. This portrait documents the connection between water, construction and transformation of the olive. It is a private property: the historical survey does not confirm public access nor the current state of the equipment.

Compare Covas, in Peio: then the inventory describes a wooden gutter. In both cases, it is important to follow the link between the levada and the mechanism, without imagining that all mills used the same solution.

In the memory of Alvite, the parish priest described weak pastures in the Orada, used throughout the year by oxen, beasts, sheep, and goats. He also mentioned rabbits and partridges in the context of hunting. It is a testimony of 1758, not a current inventory of fauna or indication of hunting sites.

In the account of 1758, the Orada presents a high boulder, with few trees, described as rough and cold. In the faldas, the scenario changes: chestnut trees, oaks, hanged vine, olive oil and cereals enter the description.

The vicar places the residents in the low areas, next to the valley, and not at the top of the mountain. Altitude, settlement and cultivation help to read the set. It is the written portrait of that year, not a survey of the current vegetation.

Serra da Orada and the Petimão River help to locate Passos in the southwest of Cabeceiras. The municipal description highlights the rugged relief and agriculture, along with the municipalities of Celorico of Basto and Fafe.

The church of São Sebastião, the cruises and the alminhas add references built to the reading of the landscape. Rio, Serra and patrimony are complementary clues to know this land; they do not make up a pedestrian itinerary here nor confirm accesses.

In the description of Passos, the municipality also refers to the neighborhood of the old parishes of Outeiro, Refojos and Alvite. This proximity scale helps to situate the mountain and river within a shared territory. Administrative boundaries and landscape elements are different ways of reading the same space.

In the ratio of 1758, the vicar of Alvite described little abundant springs in the Serra da Orada. The residents retained these waters in prey to benefit the fields facing the spring. Saving water was a way to cope with its scarcity.

The same document classified the parish as drought, especially in the summer, and referred to the absence of mills and mills. Two olive oil mills worked with oxen and other animals; to grind cereals, many residents sought neighboring parishes. The portrait links natural resources, techniques and displacements, without allowing to conclude that the same uses or structures continue today.

In 1758, the vicar João Lobo de Sousa described two olive oil mills powered by oxen and beasts. The parish was particularly dry in the summer and had no mills or pisões. Many residents resorted to neighboring parishes to grind cereal and make olive oil.

The same memory refers to small waters coming from the Orada, held in prey to benefit the fields. Watering and grinding did not necessarily depend on the same solution: here, storing water to cultivate coexisted with resorting to the force of the animals in the mill. It is the portrait of a work organization in 1758, not an inventory of current equipment.

Alvite's memory of 1758 describes the Saint Antonino fair on September 2, with its eve. Barroso bulls, bought for different destinations, came. Most of the fair was located in Pereiras, in Refojos.

In the same place, the vicar refers to a monthly fair on 2, introduced a few years ago and considered less important. Distinguishing the two avoids confusing the annual meeting with the monthly calendar. The report documents trade and movement at that time, without announcing current fairs.

In the collection published by Teresa Soeiro in 2017, Luís and Manuel José Ribeiro are presented as the last tamanqueiros of Cacheina, in Alvite. Both passed to shoemakers at a more advanced stage of life. Luís left the clog around 1980. The change shows a knowledge to adapt to the preferences of those who bought, rather than a tradition stopped in time. It is documented history, not an indication of workshops opened today.

The municipal record of Poça do Monte, raised in 14 April 2008, describes a transformation into Alvite: the canal in natural land was channeled by the consorts in 2001. It was about a kilometer and used water from the source of Ribeiro Furado.

The record identifies seven consorts and refers to a steep slope in the initial part. This story helps distinguish the old open channel from pipe conduction. The document does not allow to conclude how the network is today nor presents a path to walk.

A fire corresponded to a household, not to a person. It is the distinction also explained in the notes of editions of the Parish Memories, as published by the Municipality of Ourém. The explanation of the term is general; the numbers of this story come from the memory of Passos.

The memory of Passos of 1758 counts 71 fireworks and 211 sacramental persons. They are categories of the parish register: they do not equal 71 inhabitants or a total population measured as in the current censuses. The source then places Passos in the term of Celorico of Basto. The same summary dedicates the matrix to St. Sebastian and indicates that the vicar was presented by the Abbot of St. Clement of Basto. Population and religious organization appear, thus side by side in the document.

The account of St. Pedro of Alvite distinguishes the civil subjects, linked to the Abbot and the convent of Refojos, from the criminals, attributed to the municipality judge of Cabeceiras. The Couto thus had an organization that is not limited to a line on the map. It's a historical description, no correspondence with the current administration. There is an important territorial distinction: the answer places Petimão in the term of Celorico of Basto. The skills of the Couto are described for other places, avoiding reading the entire parish as a single jurisdiction.

The memory of Alvite enumerates six chapels in 1758. Saint Antonino belonged to the house and fifth with that name; Good Order was next to the House of Alvimento; the Holy Family, next to the House of the Tower. These three are presented as private.

The others were São Mamede, in Petimão, Santa Catarina, on the homonymous hill, and São Sebastião, in place of the Chão. The text assigns burdens to the customers, but saves St Mamede: there were the convent of Refojos and the abbot of St Clement as midwives. The word factory arises linked to these maintenance responsibilities, not to an industrial installation. These are 1758 bonds, without establishing current property or access.

In reply to the 1758 survey, the vicar of Alvite recalled the earthquake of 1755. He said there had been no ruins, except for the arms of two crosses of the chapel of the House of the Tower, which would have been twisted north. He added that they were already straight.

The report separates the event from the state observed when it was written. It is a local testimony, not a measurement of the intensity of the earthquake nor a confirmation of visible marks today.

In 1758, the parochial memory was Passos in the term Celoric of Basto. The history published by the Câmara de Celorico explains the change: in the administrative reforms of the decades of 1830 and 1840, Passos passed to Cabeceiras. The source frames the process in this period, without indicating a specific year for this transfer. Compare the two reports helps to understand why ancient documents of the same land may refer to different counties.

The change does not appear isolated in Celorico's account: the same reorganization took other parishes to Amarante, Felgueiras and Mondim. Passos should therefore be read in the context of the liberal reforms of the nineteenth century. Changing the municipality is changing the administrative link; it does not imply that the houses have changed places. When searching for a family or property, the time of the document matters as much as the name of the land.

In 1758, the vicar described the church of Alvite with three altars: the principal, associated with St Pedro, and those of the Name of God and the Lady of the Rosary. He referred to a single body, choir, main chapel and sacristy. It is the provision registered at that time, without confirmation that it remains the same.

The document situates the church in Cacheina, surrounded by residents. It distinguishes the main altar of the two collaterals and mentions a brotherhood associated with the brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament. The portrait of the building thus includes a community: places of worship, people and religious organization appear in the same response.

A list of spaces is not enough to reconstruct a plant. We can recognize functions and names, but the exact position of each dependency would require other sources. It is a good occasion to compare what a text describes with what an external photograph can show.

The municipal presentation highlights a particularity of the chapel of Santa Catarina de Alvite: it is encrusted in a penedia. The encounter between rock and construction gives a clue to look at the heritage beyond the facade.

The source identifies this relationship with the place, but does not provide here a construction date or a visiting time. The chapel form gathers the available documentary information.

The memory of 1758 already named Santa Catarina in the hill with this name, among six chapels of the parish. The two sources answer different questions: the old document places it in a network of places of worship; the municipal presentation draws attention to the relationship between construction and rock. This presence in the report does not date the external form that the photograph shows.