Porto Rafael 0 Comments

Porto Rafael

"To dream is to live, Count's word!"

The noble Count de Berlanga Rafael Neville, born in Malaga in 1926, after travelling among Spain, Morocco, England and France, one night had a dream of a beach with an incredibly blue sea, with lush vegetation, with little houses and other islands that could be seen on the horizon.

The Count wanted his dream to become true, but he didn’t know where that paradise was.

He began his search among Nice, Corsica and Sardinia and found his dream place in northern Sardinia, near the Nelson Bay: a small beach kissed by a crystal clear sea. In 1962 he purchased two hectares of land and began to construct  by turning to locals to build the first white residence in Porto Rafael's small square and the tiny little church of Santa Rita da Cascia, being at this regard the anecdote that Rafael, having obtained the money to buy the island from a wealthy aunt, would fulfill her request of  building a small church ...

These constructions would give the start to a full-of-charm architecture made up of small white-plated houses with soft and curved shapes, with an inset not conflicting with the wild nature of the land fragranced by the sea and the Mediterranean Scrub, being in perfect fusion with its natural context.

The piazzetta used to host the light-hearted parties of the sixties, populated by youth, music and life because the Count loved life and loved Sardinia.

With his death in 1996, the Count took away with him a bit of that lust and vivacity of Porto Rafael but leaving the great lesson: "To dream is to live,  as reported on one of the plates on Porto Rafael walls.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." (Walt Disney)

 

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Written by Daniela Toti

 

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