Porto Rafael

The small resort of Porto Rafael was founded on the North Eastern coast of Sardinia, Italy, by Raphael Neville, Count of Berlanga de Duero, in the late 1950s. (see Obituary in Corriere della Sera archives, Page 17, 4 December 1996). Neville was an artist, and the son of Edgar Neville the Hollywood film director, playwright and novelist who became close friends with Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford (see book, Il Viaggio Americano, p. 107, by Ignacio Martinez de Pison). Raphael Neville's maternal family were Spanish aristocrats; his grandmother Maria Romree Y Palacios was a lady in waiting in the Spanish court and the family title was inherited through the male line from her. (http://www.grancanariaweb.com/cine/edgar/edgar2.htm ). His mother Angeles Rubio Arguelles y Allessandri was founding patron of a theatre in Malaga, Spain, named Teatro Ara where she also directed plays (http://www.guateque.net/nuestros_queridos_cines.htm). On the paternal side, his grandfather was the director of the Julius Neville motor company in Spain.

Raphael was born on 26 August 1926 and sent to Paris and London to be educated. His father wanted him to study Architecture in Paris, but his bohemian son had other ideas, and became a chorus dancer in the Follies Bergeres dancing in Josephine Baker's shows. In 1959, Raphael took a trip to Sardinia, where he stumbled upon a small bay facing an Archipelago of little islands, (Maddalena archipelago) and he fell irrevocably in love with it. (see Book 'Sardinia' by Dana Facarci and Michael Pauls). He bought a small patch of land between Baia di Nelson (where Lord Nelson had once anchored his fleet) and Punta Sardegna, near the town of Palau, from a local landowner called Paolo Cudoni - and for the rest of his life, maintained he had first seen this place in a dream. "Sognare e Vivere" (to dream and to live) became the motto of his eponymous resort. Lord Nelson made a gift of silver candlesticks and a silver cross to the church of Santa Maddalena, on the island of La Maddalena across the water from Porto Rafael which are still on display at the "Diocesano" museum.

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