Artisanal

Craft, tradition, beauty and an unforgettable sense-of-place.

Those who know Trancoso well appreciate its tourism success relies on having an absolutely unique and beautiful setting, a visual identity unlike any other which balances timelessness and the contemporary.

To understand Trancoso’s sense-of-place one must not only study ancient events of the past but also a more recent story of objects made here.

Hippies of the 70’s and 80’s began visiting Trancoso at a serendipitous moment preceding the arrival of modernity. No infrastructure was in place for water or electricity, no paved roads, no big shops selling consumer goods.

This pivotal moment allowed for a spontaneous collaboration between visitors and nativos to create protections for Trancoso, visionary steps to emphasize conservation of history and nature so the Trancoso everyone loved wouldn’t go lost in the future.

With this union of purpose lasting friendships were begun (documented well in the book Nativos e Biribandos), and a rich creative exchange started to form.

Ancient hand-craft skills were still practiced by Trancoso families during these years, and the new arrivals included artists who began sharing ideas of reinvention of old, local techniques of working with wood, river weeds, and ceramics in order to give birth to new expressions which were traditional but modern at the same time, practical, and naturally sustainable.  And beautiful.

Appreciation for beauty was always a key value in the population, a ‘superpower’ seen in their complete restraint in changing the facades of their houses, the resistance to modernize the church, and the creation of everyday objects from simple furnishing to fishing boats which were always pleasing to the eye.

Over the past forty to fifty years Trancoso has thus evolved a design and architecture aesthetic which reflect the materials and climate of the destination, and its unique lifestyle.

This ‘Trancoso style’ is still today propagated in books and magazines around the world, not just of travel but of design and architecture, and has created a micro-economy of craft and design which is the perfect complement to tourism.

Preserving, valuing, and elevating the visual identity of Trancoso is essential and a key mission of OTT, with the town center and countless beautifully executed small hotels, homes, shops and restaurants being a living, open air museum of sustainable architecture and design which is unmistakably ‘Trancoso’.