Q. When is a palace not

A. When its a house with secrets.
A “Rococo” style house was built here in the early 19thC, but fell into disrepair when the owners family died.
A rich man with pretensions, one José Francisco da Silva took it on at the beginning of the 20thC. Some say that he was given the title "Viscount of Estói " for restoring the place but rumour has it that he earned it by providing a safe and discrete hideaway for other rich and powerful men to enjoy. Parties were laid on for them to encounter their paramours and there were many small summer houses and gazebos in the gardens for private tete-a-tetes. Nobody can say for certain why he was made a Viscount, but he was and thus the house metamorphised into a palace.
On his death it languished again until convertd into a Poussada by the Portugese Tourist Office.
. The three former reception are still used for socializing as there are sofas and armchairs in all of these rooms and the bar opposite serves drinks, snacks and even afternoon tea here. Dinner and breakfast are served in the restaurant next to the original kitchen, which still has the original cooker and cooking
⦁ From the verandah, there are of the Serra do Caldeirão mountains and the plebs in the city of Faro.
⦁ Lots of suggestive columns in the garden supporting nothing
⦁ The facade - 3 rooms wide, 2 deep
⦁ The luxury of running water: a cherub sitting on a dolphin
⦁ The front, viewed from a summer house
⦁ Nymphs romping in the grotto. (another fake, a replica of Antonio Canova’s sculpture ‘The Three Graces’)Read more