We build our future from Quinta dos Inglese's history
In a stronghold of nature in the shape of a trapeze, by the seaside and having as background the Sintra Mountain, we can find lingering by their houses the Quinta dos Ingleses, name by which the Quinta Nova de Santo António, founded in the 18th century, is known.
This farm was a recreational and agricultural estate of the Alagoa heirs, made noble by D. José and allies of the powerful Marquês de Pombal. From these fertile lands many barrels of the famous Carcavelos wine were produced.
But not only the wine made this estate famous. Stage of fascinating historical events, between 1808 and 1812, it was used as defensive hold in the “Linhas de Torres”, conceived by Portuguese and English troops to contain the armies of Napoleon. A few decades later, during the civil wars between absolutists and liberal forces, it also accommodated a military outpost.
Later in the century, already in peaceful times, it resumed the production of Carcavelos wine, which was seriously affected by the phylloxera outbreak that affected Portugal.
Aerial photography of Quinta dos Ingleses, with its forest adjacent to Carcavelos beach, by Bernardo d'Alte, 2021.
Divided in the north in 1889 with the arrival of the railway in Cascais, the estate had meanwhile - after 1870 - became the launching site of the first telegraphic submarine cables grounded in Portugal, linking England to Gibraltar and Malta, with the purpose to reach India, and afterwards the Azores and Brazil, in a complex net that has not stopped to grow, keeping pace with the state-of-the-art of the communications technology via submarine cables, until the 70’s of the 20th century.
The estate got its nickname “Quinta dos Ingleses” (Farm of the English) with the arrival of the British staff of the Falmouth Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company. With them came also different social customs and a taste for amateur sportive practices that had place in the Quinta Nova. Its football team dominated the national football scenery until the first decades of the 20th century, but the British staff of the submarine cable station in Carcavelos has been also mentioned as responsible for the dissemination of tennis, cricket and rugby.
Around 1930, the old manor was converted to the headquarters of the association and international school with the same name, St Julian’s, a tribute to the lighthouse of the Forte de São Julião, as a light that guides knowledge.
Today, it endures in the Quinta Nova a centennial wood that is justly considered the last green stronghold of the Estoril coast. Intentionally planted between 1900 and 1920, it shelters hundreds of vegetal and animal species, being a relevant holder of biodiversity and a protective shield against the rampant urbanization of the southern coast of Cascais municipality.
Opening itself as an extraordinary and charming space of union between municipalities, realm of collective enjoyment for the populations of Carcavelos, Parede, São Domingos de Rana and Oeiras, the Quinta dos Ingleses allows everyone that visit it a unique natural space, a sanctuary of tranquillity with a seaside view.
Timeline of events
1810 - 2021
Current aspect of meadow reconstituted with pine trees, Quinta dos Ingleses.