Authentic
colonial farm of century 18, the Solar das Andorinhas
welcome the costumers in optimum
style: right in the entrance, a signboard that
affirms that “this ground is blessed, will
be happy all them that step on here, because my
Master was good”. Who signs it is the slave
Clemilda, that died with 120 years old, in 1956.
Certainly there and, obvious, not anymore as a
slave.
This
sentence illuminated my arrival at the big colonial
house, enormous, pure, full of histories– some
of them, known, others, perpetuated in the silence
of it’s thick walls.
Of everything,
the energies of other times sprout and echo in
our present. It’s emotive to
arrive, full the eyes with the white and blue that
reign at the front, with the colors of the land
and the elegance of the centennial palms. It’s
emotive to know that through there so many lives
has passed, so many loves had lived, so many sweat
has mixed with tears and laughs.
The
force of presence of the slaves, and the old
Farm Two Bridges (the name that it was give when
the farm was created) became to 80’s, not
shame it’s airs with weighed suffering memories,
as it happens in so much other places. No. There,
the light is permanent and the atmosphere is easy.
Moreover, it promotes a kind of reverence and a
lot of curiosity about the history, not just the
history of the big house, but of the others constructions
too. Some with Italian influence, therefore the
immigrants leave their mark there too.
Historic Site
The constructions of Solar das Andorinhas had been
preserving and since 2004, they are tumbled as
historic site, by CONDEPACC (Counsel of Defense
of the Cultural Patrimony of Campinas). The farm
was one of the biggest coffee producers of the
state of São Paulo and, today, is one of
the most complete hotel of Brazil, with 37 years
of activity. There are 240.000m² of green
area, so many landscapes and a compound turned
to leisure, with a high dose of culture. It’s
address: km 121 of the highway that connect Campinas
and Mogi-Mirim, at just one hour from São
Paulo.
The long trajectory
The Farm Two Bridges had distinguished at the coffee
agriculture of the region, having produced about
6.500 bags for year.
After the abolition of slavery the Italians had
assumed the work of planting, pick e embark the
coffee in the stations of the Company “Mogiana” of
Rail Road, which tracks run parallels to the farm. When part of it’s
lands was acquired in 1971, by the engineer Roberto Ceccarelli, it was already
subdivided and passed by the hands of many proprietors. It was in ruins. Cecarelli
and his wife, Lúcia, had been pledged in restoring the constructions,
conserving it’s original style and, pioneering, they had idealized there
a Farm Hotel, now called by the poetical name of “Solar das Andorinhas”.
The principal historical places constructed throughout the time are there:
the ruins of the slave’s house, the big house, with it walls of 80 cm
of width, the little houses of the colonists, the chapel, the sculpture of
Christ dated of 1806, the Water Well, the machine’s house, where a museum
is being reorganized. At the garden of entrance, there are imperial palms and
a magnificent gate. Which palm was planted to celebrate a year of harvest,
and the iron gate imposed the limits between the big house and the propriety
remains. There is too, part of the pavement of the old horse houses, the ruins
of the sawframe and the mill of corn meal, the coquette – that one, of
the time that dates were pass by vigilant looks. Full of symbology. And there
are still pages of the accounting books, of the time of the Italians, written
with pen of point of plume and untouched. Unexpectedly, between other preciosities,
- in a corner of the house of the machines – there are framed letters
from Mário de Andrase to Lúcia Fanele Ceccarelli. She had been
his pupil and they mailed each other between 1935 and 1944.
Ms.
Lúcia was the owner of Solar Das Andorinhas
until July 2006, when she died. She was 96 years
old.
Finally,
the slave’s kitchen. It’s
magic! It’s there where the costumers drink
coffee, make friends, exchange ideas. The walls
preserve the soot of the old times (they cannot
be painted, in order that it’s tumbled as
Historical and Cultural Patrimony). The contrast
with all the rest goes deep. In the centre, the
same stove with enormous “mouths” and
the iron canisters where was cooked the slave’s
food. The atmosphere is of mystery, mainly at night,
at the teatime, that’s prepared by Ms. Iracema,
swallowed in small sips, through the taste of histories
and mysteries of the farm. It was an obligator
stop for me. After Lúcia Ceccarelli’s
death, the hotel passed though a rebuilding, keeping,
although, as priority, the well being of the costumers
and the history of the hotel, instigating, impregnated
on the walls and lands of Solar.
