This rural estate was inherited by the wife of the writer Eça de Queiroz (1845-1900), who was also a diplomat: consul at Havana, at Newcastle, at Bristol and at Paris. He came from Paris to see the estate and evaluate the need of works in order to feel as comfortable there as in the city. It took some time to achieve those improvements, allowing him to spend holidays in that mountain countryside, with beautiful landscapes and traditional food with local products, which definitely seduced him and inspired him in his novel "A Cidade e as Serras" (The City and the Mountains), published in 1901 - after his death.
The estate now bears the name it had in the novel - Tormes - and is located in the civil parish of Santa Cruz do Douro, part of Baião council.