Portugal Up Close

No. 4 MAY 2014

In early 2008, after more than 20 years in journalism, Nuno Ferreira finally decided to make an old dream of his come true: to walk around his own country, in the most remote inland areas, from Sagres to Cevide, the northernmost point in mainland Portugal. From the yellow plains of the Alentejo to the steeply sloping villages in the mountains in the north, the journalist found what remains of a once rural country, now largely drained by the demands of cities, towns and foreign lands. Nuno Ferreira’s Portugal is a place where the natural beauty of some of the most pristine landscapes in Europe contrasts with their abandonment by the central power. The trip leads the reporter to confront the effects of desertification on the daily lives of the people living there. He found fear and mistrust, but also stories of resilience and survival in places lost on the map, where the traditional culture of generations lives on in the hands of just a few stalwarts.