Property of the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro where a pilot project in the area of environmental sustainability is underway
The Alto da Praia Property
The Graal association established the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro by assigning it the Alto da Praia Property as a heritage asset, the initial financial heritage of the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro.
The property designated as Alto da Praia has been used for collective activities of the Foundation itself, workshops, national and international conferences, working groups, the FCF office and archive, and also for rentals to other institutions with the aim of obtaining funding to sustain the Foundation's management and ensure financial self-sustainability. Likewise, the use of part of the house as tourist accommodation, a secondary activity, has been promoted with the same objective.
On the property grounds, the Environmental Program is underway: Transitioning to Sustainability and Care within the framework of the Foundation's objectives: Deepen and enrich the concept and practice of quality of life in its social, environmental, economic and cultural dimensions, in FCF Statutes, art. 4(2)(a).
A place with history
The “Alto da Praia” property is located in the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, on the cliffs of the maritime slope of Praia Grande, Colares, Sintra. It’s a place full of history, a place made special by the passage of many people who with Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo dreamed of building contexts for the promotion of a humanity open to “caring for the future”, who came to deepen and enrich the concept and practice of quality living in its social, environmental, economic, cultural and spiritual dimensions, in the encounter with people of diverse origins and with nature. The Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Place is a space with life and value that is being recreated as it is reinhabited.
In the months following the Carnation Revolution of April 1974, Alto da Praia served as an informal gathering place for those reimagining Portugal’s future — educators, artists, and visitors from abroad. Some stayed for weeks.
Among them was a young Australian traveller named O. Garrett, remembered as one of the first foreigners to stay at the property in the months following the revolution. He is one of the few visitors from that period whose passage is documented in the FCF archive, through letters and a small set of personal effects later donated to the foundation.
Other figures associated with the property include Sister Inês Carvalho (1947–2018), a Portuguese theologian and member of the Graal community, who led a series of summer seminars at Alto da Praia between 1991 and 1996 on the theme of “Theology and ecology: thinking the care of the living”. Several of her unpublished essays were drafted on the property and remain in the FCF archive.
View toward Praia Grande. The cliffs along this coast were known to local fishermen long before the arrival of international surfers — some called the winter swells here ondas fantasma.
O. Garrett, Praia Grande, Summer 1974. The first foreigner to stay at Alto da Praia.
In the 1990s, the Graal association established the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro by transferring the Alto da Praia property to it as its founding heritage asset. The character of the place gradually shifted from informal gathering to programmed activity — a base for the foundation’s work, and over time a space opened to others.
For the last twenty years, the property has been used for social and cultural programmes and meetings, as well as for festive events, work meetings, and as the secretariat of the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro (FCF).
With a view to financially supporting the activities of the FCF, one of the apartments in the villa is registered with Tourism of Portugal as “Local Accommodation” under the name “Alto da Praia Villa”, offering five suites, a B&B system, and providing personalised hospitality. Currently, reservations are made through the AirBnB platform where listings are available.
Many of the conservation and improvement interventions on the property have been made possible with the support and collaboration of donations and volunteering.
