Sentence:  Through the years of my childhood my maternal grandmother remained the one unforgettable presence, the strong country woman ruling over her farm like a medieval lord. On her <WSD>fief</WSD> I first opened my eyes to poetry and to the land. ... There was something of the ancient matriarch in her, who had given her life to the ground, who felt that on her <WSD>fief</WSD> in southern Luxembourg she stood in the right place. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Something over which one has rights or exercises control.