Quinta da Corte

Photograph from a section of Quinta da Corte. It is a wine estate next to the village of Valença do Douro, on the banks of the Torto River. On the other side of the river is the village of Casais do Douro. The estate is served by walled right-of-way footpaths, marked by olive tree borders, that link this property to the Seixo and Bom Retiro estates. The built nucleus is divided in two levels. On the higher level are the owner´s house and different annexes, with the wine-making structures at a lower level. The landscape is marked by large areas of mortório recolonized by olive groves, maintaining an orange grove on the river bank. The vineyard, planted in post-phylloxera terraces, occupies the entire slope. These walls were built between the 40s and 50s of the 20th century, by stonemasons from Valença do Douro. The terraces stand out by the layout and the quality of construction, and the set catches the eye due to the color of the lime that marks the circulation stairs, the shelters of vernacular construction and the inscription of the name of the property. It is also worth mentioning the landscaping quality of the public path, one of the most emblematic images of the Douro region.