A HAUNTED PLACE IN PORTUGAL- FADAGOSA THERMAL BATHS

Last Saturday we dropped Lucy and Ivani off at Evora train station and continued further North to one of our favourite places, Marvao.  Unfortunately it was the annual Feria de Castaños, the chestnut fair which seemed to be attended by the whole of the Alentejo and beyond, there was even a bus from Zafra. We decided not to get involved with the crowds as the whole point of Marvao is the slow pace of life, almost from another age. Still good to see that a few times a year it gets busy, very well organized with private cars banned, the only way up to the village is by walking or taking a designated bus which parks outside the walls.

We decided to re-visit somewhere that we had discovered years and years ago on one of our rambles whilst living in the Alentejo.  The old thermal baths of Fadagosa established at the beginning of the XIX century, popular with Portuguese and Spanish people afflicted with rheumatism, skin diseases and gout. The baths flourished until a steady decline in the 1930s until they fell into disuse and ruin by the end of the 1950s.

Today the ruin is complete with fallen roofs, shattered floors and splintered doors. Only the strong cobalt blue of the remaining woodwork retains some colour amidst the decay.

 

 

Because of the strong spring which still gushes from the ground the whole area is inundated causing prodigious growth of sumac and brambles, some evidence of an orchard still remain with a few straggly orange trees.

The atmosphere is haunting, what stories of hope, cure and death might echo through the long corridors and waft around the still remaining marble baths. A little piece of Portuguese social history in this remote corner of the Alentejo.