Of all the possessions that prompt ostentatious behaviour, houses are perhaps the ultimate visual manifestation of a higher or lower quality of life. Houses have always been a place of shelter, in their simplest and most stripped-down sense, but on the ladder of human ambition, they are also places of beauty, comfort and a symbol of grandeur. There is also an emotional value associated with houses, houses that are homes and the stage for a variety of experiences and narratives throughout life, establishing themselves as genuine custodians of memories.
Solares (manor houses), or palacetes (mansions), are the original homes of noble families. They are also commonly associated with older residences that reveal the luxury and comfort of a particular era. They are, in fact, iconic buildings, architecturally rich and undoubtedly historically important. And they are, above all, part of Portugal’s heritage. Heritage that must be preserved and cared for, because it is the identity of a region, the voice of many generations and the cultural heritage of centuries of history.
In Portugal, manor houses were mostly built from the 15th century onwards, a particularly affluent period in which the country became an empire. They were the homes of nobles and families belonging to the traditional elite of a region or city. Alongside manor houses, there was a proliferation of other stately homes and old houses worthy of appreciation from the north to the south of the country. In Ponte de Lima, this phenomenon took on special significance, as Portugal’s oldest town has the largest collection of Baroque manor houses in the country, with civil architecture gaining particular splendour and dimension during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, Ponte de Lima is the centre of an ancestral historical legacy and it’s worth revisiting the etymology of the Portuguese word «solar», since it originates from the Latin word «solum», which means soil or earth. There is, therefore, the idea that a manor corresponds to the place where a noble family took root and maintained itself over several centuries, continuing its lineage and keeping the property under the same family name, which is still the case with some historic houses in the River Lima valley.
