About Us

When pondering the first ideas on how to convert the existing native’s house the principal design elements that came to mind were the cloister and the arches. Once the work was completed, the original house had assumed the appearance of a monastery or convent. Olaf embraced the concept of creating a place to retreat to, a sanctuary for contemplation and reflection, an oasis of Zen, hence the concept of Convento came to surpass.

Arcadia, on the other hand, first derived from the Ancient Greeks, as a myth, or a concept if you will, symbolising Garden Eden - paradise. Over the centuries the idea inspired countless writers, poets and painters, the names of some you will encounter on the door of your chalet or room at Convento Arcádia. During the Renaissance period, Arcadia re-emerged as a fashionable theme, when Jacopo Sannazaro, an Italian poet and humanist wrote his pastoral poem titled ‘Arcadia’. The poem was largely influenced by the otherworldliness of the place. In the Baroque era, Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino) and Nicolas Poussin, from France, dedicated their paintings to the pastoral theme of Arcadia. Poussin painted two versions of ‘Et in Arcadia ego’ which depicted mythical shepherds set in archetypical idyllic, pastoral scenes. The latin phrase “Et in Arcadia ego” translates to ‘In Arcadia, there I am’, where the ‘I’ refers to death, signifying that everything is perishable, even paradise.