Before it was a house, it was water. Fonte Velha was an old spring that, for a long time, served the community of Vila do Bispo. Imagine the village of another age: the jugs carried on heads, the conversations by the water, the coolness of those arriving at the end of a sunlit day. Water was life, and the village gathered around it.
From that spring Pure Fonte Velha inherited its name — and with it a calling: to be a place where you come to quench your thirst, a place of quiet, conversation and rest.
The house was a traditional Algarvian village house. We restored it with care and respect, to preserve the authentic character of the building and to create, within it, a welcoming space for those who visit us.
We are in Vila do Bispo, inside the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park, one of the most genuine villages in the Algarve. Here the postcard Algarve gives way to the real one: the wild west coast, swept by wind and Atlantic; the calmer, golden south coast; and, in between, a white village where time runs at the pace of a stroll.
Today Fonte Velha is still a meeting place: for Rota Vicentina walkers arriving with the dust of the trail on their boots, for surfers with salt in their hair, for travellers who come for one night and find themselves thinking of staying longer. A breakfast at the table in the morning; at day's end, the fresh water of those who return.
It has been many years since the village came to Fonte Velha for water. The name remained, and so did the calling: a place you reach thirsty and leave with a full soul.
