The village of Campêlo sits on a ridge above Vila Nova do Ceira. The narrow road runs through the village lined by new and old houses. The older houses were built from large pink and yellow sandstone blocks, hauled by oxen from Olho de Marinho.
The hill above the village is called Serra da Santa Quitéria, and in the past, this was common land.
A 90-year old resident of  Campêlo, Sr.ª Albertina de Jesus Felipe, told us a little about how they lived in the past:
The inhabitants of Campêlo lived from agriculture and had oxen to work on the fields. They also kept sheep and goats to sell and for their milk, and collected pine resin. The cereals grown were taken for grinding to the mills at Vila Nova do Ceira, and the olives went to the lagar of Vila Nova do Ceira to be pressed.
People were very poor and went barefoot summer and winter. The work on the fields was very hard but everyone pulled together and each day they would joke and laugh as they worked. Nobody ever felt alone in such a close community - there was always a friend, neighbour, or family to help.

In the past, it was common for beggars to go from door to door asking for food. Once, she told us, a beggar knocked on her door with his sack to ask her for something to eat. “I can only offer you an onion” she said. The beggar retorted “I have never had to eat an onion before” to which she responded “In that case you are luckier than me!”
Sr.ª Albertina never went to school but she learned to read and write from the boys, who did go to school, and would return and share their learning with the girls while tending the goats on the hills. Other skills she gained by observation - when she was very young, she watched a man who had come to prune the olive trees in the spring, and thereafter was able to do the job by herself. There was no spring or stream in Campêlo, so the villagers used the water from the wells for drinking and for irrigating the land, carrying innumerable pots for the purpose - “You could not imagine how many pots of water I used to carry!” Eventually water was piped from the Serra do Olho de Marinho and now it comes from Arganil.