Leiria photographer travels paths between Portugal and Spain in search of 21st century borders – Leiria Region
In 1509, Duarte d’Armas crossed the border between Portugal and Spain, drawing, at the request of D. Manuel I, the Portuguese castles and fortresses. In 2021, José Luís Jorge is following in his footsteps, but he has another mission: to understand what this political line that separates the two Iberian countries means, after all, at a time when the free movement of people and goods is in force.
The photographer from Leiria has long aspired to follow this path, in order to record in photography as fortifications designed in the 16th century. “The idea came up several years ago, after an internet search in which I discovered Duarte d’Armas’ book. I was excited by the idea of following the same route, going from castle to castle”.
Since September 27, José Luís Jorge has carried out the plan, in the opposite direction to that carried out by D. Manuel I’s squire. It began at the mouth of the Minho river and is destined for the point where the Guadiana meets the sea. But the task will be divided into three journeys: to the Douro in this first; in the spring it will connect from there to the Tagus; and then complete the route to Vila Real de Santo António.
In just under a month, he has covered nearly 400 kilometers, lost close to five kilos, found surprising encounters and also had scares for life.
“It is necessary to be well and physically and mentally prepared”, vents José Luís Jorge to REGION OF LEIRIA by telephone, at a stop to recover in Bragança.
The demanding challenge makes him admire even more the author of the “Livro das Fortalezas”. “If for me it’s been difficult, for Duarte d’Armas then… It must have been absolutely extraordinary”, he imagines, projecting the obstacles found 500 years ago.
In these first weeks, geography was the biggest “adversary”. “The hardest thing I think I’ve ever done is in the mountains of Peneda, Soajo, Gerês and Serra Amarela. I even passed 1,300 meters of altitude! ”.
Along the way, José Luís Jorge has fulfilled the initial plan of passing by the castles illustrated by Duarte d’Armas, photographing them as well as the beautiful landscapes he crosses, complementing with small videos and informal ones with whom he comes across.
“Frontier Line”, as the voyage that has just begun, is entitled, is already full of reasons of interest: the photographer stepped into the most northerly point of Portugal, “highly symbolic”, Cevide, where the first milestone of the division between Portugal and Spain is located. ; Many stories about smuggling, which fattened fortunes; fortuitously encountered the famous Father Fontes in Vilar de Perdizes, “a very strange and very powerful moment”; he slept in an old post of the Fiscal Guard, in São Vicente da Raia; and visited the Mixed Couto and its incredible history as an independent micro-state of Portugal and Spain until 1864.
This set of information and experiences has contributed to understanding the best that this frontier is today, in the 21st century, at a time when the connection between Portugal and Spain has become radically permeable. After all, “what does it mean today, compared to the times before 1993, when it was the liberation of borders, to live on the border?”, he asks.
After the end of the borders as we used to know them, the neighborly relations between the villages in the streak experienced “a tremendous increase”. In cafes, in markets, on a daily basis, José Luís Jorge has met almost as many Spaniards as Portuguese in national territory. “And on the other side, it’s the same”. Everyone circulates “as we go to Batalha or to another place around Leiria”. There, they tell him, they speak “Raiano”, a mixture of Portuguese, Galician and Spanish. “They go to each other’s lands, they all know each other”.
This reality of the streak of modern times will continue to fuel this journey that has not been without scares.
“The biggest are the dogs,” he exclaims. In the territory of the Iberian wolf, “which does not pose any kind of danger to people”, the sheepdogs “can kill if we enter their perimeter – they attack us without pity or pity”. And José Luís Jorge will not forget the moment when he was surrounded by four castro-laboreiros, “which reach up to his waist”.
You still have to find out how your partner came out today. “They came right to me and surrounded me. I moved forward slowly, talking to them and when they were distracted by two vehicles, I moved far enough away”.
Scares aside, he is used to many trips, José Luís Jorge says that this one is not comparable to any other he has already done. Not even the ones you did on foot, like the climb to Mount Kenya and the two-week hike in the Moroccan Atlas, which you undertook in the 1990s.
“I already knew it was going to be tough, but I didn’t know it was so hard. But thankfully, because if I knew, I wouldn’t have done it,” he says. Continuing is now almost a matter of pride. “I’m already on the way, I’m not a man to give up. Now I take him it’s almost like a mission. Getting to the Douro is a mission”.
“Frontier Line” by José Luís Jorge can be followed online, in this instagram account.