A special episode for more than one reason that you’ll discover while listening, but one thing is for sure…the fountain water is to blame.

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There was no battle called The Battle of the Uvas and the Telhado, or Lixa, but a battle did take place round here, in a land rich in grapes (which make a fantastic Vinho Verde) and there’s a native of Telhado who is important in this story… of Quinta da Lixa.

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11th of September, 1984. Something that had never been seen on a football field happened 20km from Arouca. It wasn’t a football match, but it did have a ball and it ran on wheels.

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António Fortunato, 82 years old with a collection of tractors and other agricultural machinery from times past. A collection which isn’t a collection.

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The story – and stories – behind one of the most emblematic chapels in Portugal. The chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição – Praia de Mira, Coimbra.

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The (apparently commonplace) story of a man who, on one hand, had a big misfortune in his life, but on the same hand, acheived fortune and the admiration of everyone.

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Episode 3 – The “right” side of the Padrão

O Padrão dos Descobrimentos, the Monument to the Discoveries, in Lisbon, almost never existed. It was imagined, at the last minute, in the middle of the night in 1939 by  Cottinelli Telmo, but only after they had told him that his plans for the Exposição do Mundo Português of 1940, the Exhibition of The Portuguese World, lacked “something”. Even though he was annoyed, he came up with the idea for the monument (modelled later in plaster by the sculptor, Leopoldo de Almeida) and not only was it the star of the Estado Novo’s exhibition, but it was reconstructed definitively twenty years later, in concrete and stone, next to the Tejo, where today it is one of Lisbon’s tourist must-sees.

Nobody knows the exact number of closed or derelict theatres and cinema-theatres in Portugal. This is the story of one of them.

Episodio 2 – No Theatre today

The Salvador Marques Theatre in Alhandra was inaugurated in 1905 but today, there is no Theatre. About eight decades after it opened, this auditorium closed its doors, possibly for ever. It’s not a unique case in Portugal – quite the opposite – and every theatre has a story to be told. We tell this story as an example of many others in so many villages, towns and cities in Portugal, in which the theatres and cinema-theatres that have closed over the years. If this is the case where you live, tell us and show us how it was and how it is now. For example, you could put it in the comments on our Facebook page, or by email at [email protected].

Years after the doors closed, some people were able to see inside the Salvador Marques Theatre. Three of them shared with us, and now you, what they saw. The photographers, Rui Almeida e Diogo Ramos (whom we thank for allowing us to show their photos here, see the galleries below) and Casimiro Gonçalves – our guest in this episode.

Photos by Rui Almeida

Luís Rodrigues Vitorino is one of the most inventive people you could ever meet. They call him Luís das Molas (Luís of the springs) and The Engineer, despite his only having a primary education.

Episode 1 – Luís das Molas