Museum · Room 2
Cardinal D. Luís de Sousa makes Torre Bela the head of an entailed estate and has the park walled.
Each document has its image, what it says in a few lines, the original passage and where it is kept. Quotations keep the spelling of the document.
Click the image to enlarge.
1685
In his will of 1685 Cardinal D. Luís de Sousa, Archbishop of Lisbon, founds an entailed estate and orders that Torre Bela be its head and give it its name.
He says he has made «considerable improvements» there, that the quinta was free of encumbrances, and that he hoped that «in time it will also yield a great income».
«que esta quinta seja Cabessa do Morgado»
In English: that this quinta be the head of the entail.
Click the image to enlarge.
1686
On 30 October 1686 the town council of Aveiras de Cima marks out for the Archbishop the land grant (sesmaria) of Charneca do Pinhão, with six stone markers «de portal lavrados brancos» — of dressed white stone.
A few days earlier, on 13 October, the Archbishop was at the quinta: the power of attorney ordering the purchase of all the neighbouring lands is dated from «Torre Bela».
«Torre Bela, treze de Outubro de 1686»
Click the image to enlarge.
1687
In December 1687 the Archbishop leases from the Santarém town council two hills in the Vale dos Galegos, to straighten the wall he was building. It is the oldest evidence of work on the wall.
The hills were «useless and barren scrub». The rent was set at ten tostões a year, paid at Christmas, and the council forbade him to take any more land.
«não é razão que por causa tão limitada fique uma tão grande obra imperfeita»
In English: it is not right that for so small a cause so great a work should remain imperfect.
Click the image to enlarge.
1701
On 27 December 1701, no longer able to sign, the Cardinal adds to his will that, failing a male heir in the House of Arronches, the entail shall pass to D. Luísa Casimira de Sousa, provided she marries whomever the Marquis of Arronches chooses.
D. Luísa Casimira marries in 1715 D. Miguel, natural son of King Pedro II. It is through her that Torre Bela comes to the Dukes of Lafões.
«por eu não poder asignar»
In English: because I am unable to sign.