Frank Jensen
Frank Jensen, who co-founded Moinhos Velhos and gave much of his life to this valley, passed away on 19 January 2020. Guests and staff who knew him remember a man whose belief in this place, and in the value of fasting, yoga and quiet retreat, never wavered across the decades he spent building it.
A goodbye in the temple
We said goodbye to Frank with a ceremony in our yoga temple, the space he helped create and cared for so closely. Part of his ashes were laid to rest afterwards in our remembrance garden, beneath a hibiscus tree, one of his favourite flowers, and now a quiet, living marker for anyone who wants to sit with his memory during a stay here.
Frank co-founded Moinhos Velhos alongside his wife and long-time partner in the project, Anne-Karine, drawn together by a shared conviction that fasting, yoga and simple retreat from a hectic world could genuinely change people's lives. What began as a small, personal project in this valley grew, over nearly three decades, into one of the earliest juice-fasting retreats of its kind anywhere in the world.
What remains
Frank's name is not on the door any more, but very little of what happens here, the daily rhythm, the juices, the yoga temple itself, exists without the years he put into it. We still think of the valley as carrying something of his spirit, and we felt it was right to mark that here, on our own blog, for guests old and new who may remember him, or simply want to know a little of where this place came from.
Rest well, Frank.
