Take a look at the façade in front of you: hundreds of stones carved into diamond points. Lisboetas didn't overthink the name: the house of spikes.

1An Italian house paid for by India

It was built in 1523 for Brás de Albuquerque, son of Afonso de Albuquerque, the governor who established Portuguese power in the Indian Ocean. Brás had travelled in Italy, and the façade recalls Renaissance palaces such as the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. But this house is smaller and quirkier: doors and windows are scattered without symmetry, as the owner pleased.

When it was built, the house stood almost on the water: the bank of the Tagus was much closer than it is today.

2What the earthquake took

The 1755 earthquake brought down the two upper floors. For two centuries the house stood truncated, and was even used as a salt-cod warehouse, fittingly, on Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, the street of the cod merchants. In 1983, for a major European exhibition of art and science, the lost floors were rebuilt. Excavations at the time uncovered a stretch of the Islamic-period city wall and Roman tanks for salting fish.

Since 2012 the house has been home to the José Saramago Foundation, named after the only Nobel laureate in literature writing in Portuguese.

3What to look out for

  • The diamond points: compare the original ones on the lower floors with those on the rebuilt upper floors.
  • The windows: none of them lines up perfectly with its neighbour.
  • The olive tree opposite, brought from Azinhaga, Saramago's home village. His ashes have rested at its foot since 18 June 2011.
The Casa dos Bicos with its original floors on the Great Panorama of Lisbon tiles
The house before the earthquake, upper floors still intact, on the Great Panorama of Lisbon (National Tile Museum).

Documented

The house was built in 1523 for Brás de Albuquerque, lost its upper floors in 1755 and was rebuilt in 1983; since 2012 it has housed the José Saramago Foundation.

Sources and credits

Fundação José Saramago (history of the Casa dos Bicos); Museu de Lisboa, Núcleo Arqueológico da Casa dos Bicos; Direção-Geral do Património Cultural, monument listing.

Photos:

  • The diamond-point façade of the Casa dos Bicos with the olive tree in front: Vernaccia, CC BY 2.0.
  • The Casa dos Bicos with its original floors on the Great Panorama of Lisbon tiles: RickMorais, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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