On Dragon Hill: A lesson in Portuguese Architecture

Beautiful Building in a Beautiful Setting

We visited two museums here in Cascais which demonstrated some of the beautiful design and artwork used in building ordinary houses for people to live in. One was the Casa De Santa Maria which was included in a visit to the lighthouse museum, and the other was the Museu Condes de Castro Guimaraes. The second one we came upon while out for a walk the first day here. It was such a beautiful building in a spectacular setting, that when we discovered it was a museum, we used our senior discount and explored the house for a total of 4Є. The Casa de Santa Maria was across the road and on the same little inlet from the ocean.

Casa de Santa Maria

Both of these houses date from the early 20^th century and feature strongly the typical Portuguese use of painted ceramic tiles both inside and out. We enjoyed this style when we visited Olhao a few years ago where we discovered so many of the houses in the old part of town were covered in coloured tiles rather than shingles or siding. Olhao was a simple fishing town so the style there was simple and functional, where here these houses were obviously designed and built for wealthy folk and display more elaborate design. In Olhao the tiles were use to cover the entire sides of the houses where here they seem to be used to decorate and enhance the facade of the houses. I would say that they were also used for practical purposes as well, as in the Casa de Santa Maria, the entire basement was tiled from floor to ceiling. The basement in this house was used as the kitchen and work area for staff, so although beautiful, the tiled walls would have been easy to clean, and considering that they remain bright and clean 100 years later, no painting to do ever, but hopefully you never get tired of the design.

This was a B & B Downtown

The other feature of these houses are the beautiful arches and curves. Doors are often framed in arched stone and decorated with coloured tiles, as are the windows. Even the ceilings are often works of art with decorated wood or tile.

We really enjoyed visiting these two beautiful houses turned museums so I am sharing some of the many photos I took while exploring.