My friend went through a lot of effort to disassemble and reassemble a wood burning pizzeria oven.  All this in Langley.  Here in Monchique this double arched bread oven is still used daily in the summer season to produce small loaves of a tooth-breaking crusted bread.  A reminder of the bread oven still in use at Casa Painova.  There is an elemental connection between fire, flour and food.  Maybe it’s just the alliteration of the letter “f”.

Underneath history, a few hundred years one might add, the world takes on an angelic perspective.  Archangels, portals and altar pieces do not create a golden memory.  Food is not served on plastic and toilets are not free.

In the church in Silves the chapel arches frame the altar on the table is set for bread!  Food for body and soul. A few steps further uphill and the remnants of a fortress gate frame visitors and invite all to rest.  To find shelter from “the stormy blast” as Luther would have put it.  Today under the arched gate we stayed dry from rain.  Arches have been around a lot longer than fast food and they will visibly provide more balanced nurture and last longer!