With his iron fist, Fernando Xavier shakes your hand as if it were the last time. At the age of 90, he still runs his scale workshop in the Mouraria against all odds. A century ago, his father founded « Santinho & Costa », a small scale loja on the rua do Benformoso. If today the street is a patchwork of the World with its retornados, colours and spices, Fernando remembers a bygone era. « There was a farrier for the oxen (boi in portuguese), the carts cluttered the street. That’s why they called the street Benformoso, the street « Boi formoso ». Then the carts disappeared. My little brother, now deceased, and I then experienced the arrival of the car, then the metro.«
The workshop is dark, the shadows barely revealing the silhouettes of the hundreds of scales. Why on earth does 90-year-old Fernando Xavier come to open his shop every morning ? « I live off repairs« . Is he talking to the ghosts of the past, his father, his younger brother ? What does this obstinacy in keeping this sanctuary of scales reveal ? He talks about it with passion, memories awaken in him. The saudade. I see his eyes sparkle, each word dictated is a priesthood. In the centre of the room sits this scale, once installed in the Rossio station. On a shelf, this scale was used to weigh gold. Finally, he shows me this scale of the brand « Leunam », which his family created. With a mischievous smile, he reveals that they have inverted the name « Manuel » in honour of the king. This remark is touching because you can feel that Leunam makes him proud. Saude da familia Xavier !
I am not at the end of my surprises. The workshop seems deeper than it looks. Fernando tells us to follow him. In a corner of the wall, he suddenly opens a trap door. Behind it, in the rock, flows a pure spring. Azulejos mark the sanctification of the place: « P N A V ». This sacred spring comes from the Castelo and has been there for centuries. Fernando’s family has always guarded it, behind a mountain of scales and weighing machines. Could this be the best kept secret in Mouraria ?
