for my friend, Pedro Oliveira Pinto

this is Yusef, one of the main characters of the book "Lord of Paderne"

half of it is photo manip and half is painted
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There is a place where I can consider myself blessed to have found and indeed lived there, even if only for a moment… the ruins of a castle, in Paderne, Portugal. I had always believed that there are a place for each one of us, and that this place exists, somewhere… Paderne is my secret place...

Located on the summit of a hill 90 meters in altitude, the castle is a lath and plaster wall fortification, from the 12th century. It was conquered by the Knights of the Order of Santiago led by the Master Dom Paio Peres Correia in 1249. The castle was almost totally destroyed by the 1755 earthquake, and the ruins of the small São Domingos chapel are to be found inside its ruins. It had been left abandoned... but since the Portuguese Institute of Architectural Heritage considered the Paderne castle a building of Public Interest and a specially protected area, they started to conserve and restore the walls and carry out archaeological excavations...

Lord of Paderne