At dusk, livestock returned home
Fields and hills followed a daily rhythm.
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In 1758, São Nicolau’s parish priest described goats in the hills and working animals taken there when pasture was scarce in the fields. At nightfall, the livestock returned home.
This daily rhythm connected places with different functions: fields, hills and shelter. It is a memory of rural practices, without confirmation that they continue unchanged today.
The description distinguishes goats, raised in greater numbers in the hills, from livestock used by farmers for work. The latter also sought pasture there during part of the year, when it was lacking in the fields. Going to the hills was therefore connected with food availability and the animals’ role. The rector gives no fixed calendar for these movements: what he leaves is a link between need, landscape and the nightly return.
Between the field and the hill
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What was cultivated
Not all cereal was equal →What grew in the hills
A landscape told in 1758 →Compare with Bucos memory
The animals of an ancient portrait →
Source and context
Basto Land Museum — St Nicholas Parish Memories (1758)
Accessed: . Editorial summary; the date of consultation is not the date of the facts.