Simple. Serene. Perfect. These are the three words Monique Snoeijen always has in mind when she thinks or talks about her new hospitality project in southern Portugal, Quinta do Pinheiro. They’re good words to describe it.
Opened last year, Quinta do Pinheiro is a collection of five houses inside a family estate in front of the Ria Formosa natural park near Luz da Tavira, one of the last corners of the Algarve that’s still wild and unspoiled. It joins a handful of small soulful projects that stand as islands of authenticity in an overdeveloped region. Parts of it date from 1870, and parts from 1914. They’re decorated in a way that feels abundant yet elemental, with a grand sense of scale and a thousand small details that make it feel like a home.
Monique’s now-husband, Martijn Kleijwegt, was in the process of restoring another house in the eastern Algarve when the two met, ten years ago. They used that as a vacation home for a while, but as their relationship grew, they realized it would eventually be too small for the families of the five children they had between them. They began looking for a larger investment.
“Our manager found this place and we went there,” she says. “We immediately fell in love because it was already very beautiful, as you can imagine. And also the former owners had left everything behind.” They made an offer within two days. And while the plan had been to keep it for the family—as is so often the case with such things—their enthusiasm led to an expansion of their vision.
“We got carried away,” admits Snoeijen. As they dug into the project, “everything became so beautiful that, well, we raised our ambitions and goals with every day, and now it is what it is.”
The previous owner was a Portuguese colonel, who kept the place in good repair and was an avid collector. As the restoration evolved, so did their romance. The two married on the estate a couple of years ago, with a long table set for 140 people on the terrace and the Gypsy Kings playing at the party.
Snoeijen emphasizes that they built on what was already there. They took inspiration from other history-soaked Portuguese farmhouse hotels, notably São Lourenço de Barrocal in the Alentejo, a gorgeous working estate that has inspired several other small hotels in Portugal.
They brought in one of the country’s leading architects, Frederico Valsassina, and his daughter, Marta, as the interior designer, but their work was already partly done. “We took Frederico with us to ask for his opinion,” says Snoeijen. “And I remember so vividly that he was walking around and he was just saying, ‘It’s fantastic. It’s fantastic.’” They managed to enhance and preserve rather than creating something foreign and new.
The structures were solid and sound, and much of the family’s furniture was usable. “Everything was so well—” she says. “You had the impression that time had stood still.”
They found lots of antique agricultural tools around the grounds and old kitchen implements beside the outdoor bread oven in what’s now Casa Grande, the largest of the accommodations (about 1,500 square feet). The colonel’s other collections included old schoolroom maps, books, a museum’s worth of vintage toys in what’s now the yoga studio, and old-fashioned canisters—açucar, feijão, arroz, all written in script—in the houses’ kitchens. An assemblage of watering cans and 153 heavy keys hangs on a wall in Casa da Avó (“grandma’s house”).
Like many things in the houses, those keys were once functional but are now simply beautiful. “We kept the small things because they make a big difference,” says their manager, Ciprian Pentilie. The rooftop of Casa Grande became a sundeck, with views of the estate, the Ria Formosa and the Atlantic beyond. Window frames and doors were painted red in the regional vernacular. The antique-style floors are made of terra-cotta Santa Catarina tiles—heated underneath in some places—laid in a labor-intensive technique that’s becoming increasingly rare.
For now, they’re delivering a homestyle breakfast spread on request, bringing in local chefs for casual cooking demonstrations-turned-dinners of the regional cataplana (steamed seafood stew) and preparing picnics. Or they’re recommending their favorite nearby restaurants, like the no-frills fish joint Os Fialhos within the natural park and the excellent new bistro Mesa Farta in the center of nearby Tavira.
For a couple of months this summer, they’re expecting to add to that offering, especially for the times that they host yoga or art retreats or intimate weddings (only those much smaller than their own). Well-known Amsterdam-based chef Ben van Geelen will be in residence, cooking Algarve-inspired dishes for guests of the estate.
It’s not the only expansion. The couple has already bought more land around them, including a hill full of pine trees (“pinheiros”) with a few small houses and an old winery, which they plan to restore. They’re building a deck for yoga —their resident teacher is excellent—or relaxing around a grove of huge ancient pines, and there are plans for a food forest.
But in general, they’re keeping their interventions to a minimum. “It’s so beautiful by itself,” says Snoeijen. “It does not need much. We’re not the type of project developers who want to put up as many houses as possible. We really want to go back in time.”