Before there was Monte das Louzeiras
A journey through time
Every place has a story. Ours began long before us.
Long before Monte das Louzeiras had a name, this land was already telling stories.
Stories written into the trunks of olive trees, into the dry earth of the Alentejo and into the hands of generations who cultivated it.
For centuries, people here lived with the rhythm of the seasons. They planted, harvested, shared food, made wine and pressed olives into the golden oil that became part of everyday life.
Some trees survived generations.
Some landscapes barely changed.
And some traditions were passed from one pair of hands to the next.
Monte das Louzeiras would become another chapter in that story.
But to understand where we are today, we have to travel back much further.
Our journey begins with the olive tree.
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A STORY thousands of years old
The Olive Tree — Rooted in History
Long before borders, brands or modern agriculture, the olive tree was already part of Mediterranean life.
Its story reaches back thousands of years to the eastern Mediterranean. As people travelled, traded and settled along the coast, the cultivated olive moved westwards with them. Phoenician traders helped carry this knowledge across the Mediterranean, while the Romans later expanded olive cultivation throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
In Portugal, the tree found a landscape where it could endure.
Sun, poor soils, long dry summers and generations of human care created a culture in which the olive tree became far more than an agricultural crop.
It became food.
It became light.
It became medicine and care.
It became wealth.
And above all, it became a symbol of endurance.
Some olive trees standing in Portugal today have lived through kingdoms, wars and countless generations — and still bear fruit.
To understand the Alentejo, you have to understand the olive tree.
GUARDIANS OF TIME
The Ancient Olive Trees of Monte das Louzeiras
Some of the olive trees at Monte das Louzeiras have stood here for more than four centuries.
Their trunks carry the marks of time. Their roots reach deep into the dry earth of the Alentejo, while their branches return, season after season, to light, wind and fruit.
They have witnessed generations come and go.
Years of abundance. Years of hardship. Summers of heat. Winters of rain.
And still, they remain.
In our park, these trees are more than part of the landscape. They are quiet guardians of memory — living witnesses to the story of this place.
Here, the past does not disappear. It keeps growing.
SHAPED BY THE LAND
A Landscape We Call Home
Monte das Louzeiras lies at the edge of the Serra de Adiça, near Vale de Vargo, in the concelho of Serpa.
Around us, olive trees follow the folds of the hills, tracing lines across the red earth beneath the long Alentejo sun.
For generations, this landscape has been shaped by the same elements — dry soils, light, wind, patience and the hands of those who worked the land.
It is a landscape we wake up to, work within and watch change with every season.
And yet, beneath those changes, something remains.
For us, the story of the olive tree is also the story of home.
A STORY PASSED THROUGH GENERATIONS
From Hand to Hand
For centuries, the olive harvest was shaped by hand.
People moved from tree to tree, gathering the fruit slowly, season after season, learning from the land and from those who came before them.
Knowledge was not written down. It was carried in gestures, in habits, in the rhythm of work.
When to harvest. How to treat the tree. How to read the weather. How to recognise the right moment.
Each generation received something from the one before — and added its own experience.
What one generation learned from the land, the next carried forward.
LIQUID GOLD
More Than Olive Oil
For centuries, olive oil has been one of the quiet treasures of Mediterranean life.
It nourished families, lit homes, cared for the body and became part of rituals, remedies and daily routines.
In the Alentejo, it was never simply a product.
It was the result of patience, season, labour and land — gathered from the tree, pressed from the fruit and shared at the table.
A simple drop carried the taste of a place, the work of many hands and the memory of generations.
Perhaps that is why olive oil has always been more than oil.
ONE DROP. ALL HISTORY.
The Beginning of Gota
When we began producing our own olive oil, we wanted to create more than a bottle.
We wanted to capture the story behind it — the land, the olive tree, the people and the history that had shaped this region for centuries.
That idea became Gota.
The drop became the central symbol of the brand, while the label drew inspiration from the historic architecture of Serpa — connecting the product directly to the place it came from.
Gota was never meant to be only olive oil.
It was conceived as a way of carrying a piece of this landscape, its culture and its memory beyond the Alentejo.