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Review Article | Open Access | Br. J. Arts Humanit., 2024; 6(4), 166-176 | doi: 10.34104/bjah.02401660176

The Mansion at Mouzinho da Silveira Street, in Lisbon, Portugal

Margarida Elias* Mail Img Orcid Img

Abstract

The present article is about the history of a house, more precisely the Mansion at no. 5, Mouzinho da Silveira Street, Lisbon (Portugal), which was once the residence of Amélia Leite Ferreira, a wealthy lady from the upper bourgeoisie. The house was constructed at the end of the nineteenth century, in the Barata Salgueiro Neighborhood, a place that was at that time being urbanized. It was designed in a late nineteenth-century eclectic style but was modified over time, mainly in the interior, to be repurposed as the headquarters of the Portuguese Wine and Vineyard Institute. Besides trying to know who Amelia Leite Ferreira was, the questions that we wish to address in this article are precisely how is this building a significant example of the small palaces or mansions that were erected for the bourgeoisie in the newly urbanized areas of Lisbon. Being the house of a rich widow, does this have an influence on the architecture of the house and its interior decoration? Is this mansion style typical of Portuguese and Lisbon architecture or does this typology can be found in other cities in the same period? Finally, how did the occupation by a public institution affect its architecture? As we will see, this house architecture is mainly typical of the Belle Époque, but the influence of the owner was important for its design, furniture, and decoration. We will also realize that even though the house is still very similar to its original construction, the transformation from a residence to an institution had an impact, especially on its internal structure.

INTRODUCTION

The Mansion at no. 5, Mouzinho da Silveira Street (Fig. 1) was constructed at the end of the nineteenth century, in the Barata Salgueiro Neighbourhood, in Lisbon. The building is located on the corner between Mouzinho da Silveira and Alexandre Herculano Streets, both opened in 1882. It was designed in an eclectic style, but its architecture was modified over time, to be repurposed as headquarters of a public institution, the Portuguese Wine and Vineyard Insti-tute. The urban setting changed, since new buildings were constructed in the original garden area, notable among which being a modernist building, designed by the Portuguese architect Cassiano Branco.

The house was originally the residence of a rich woman, Amélia Leite Ferreira, but the existing documentary sources on it are scarce, except for a fact sheet published about this house, on the A Casa Senhorial website, in 2022. Given this, the research undertaken was based mainly on archival docu-mentation, at the Lisbon City Hall Archive and the Contemporary Archive of the Ministry of Finance. Other information could be gleaned from studies about the Pinto Leite family, made by Francisco Queiroz (2004); or about to the history of the Barata Salgueiro Neighbourhood. This past of this location is also important to be aware, especially regarding the investi-gation published by Raquel Henriques da Silva (for example in 1994) and the paper published by Manuel Paquete (2019).

From Vale do Pereiro alleyway to Barata Salgueiro neighbourhood

The history of the mansion at Mouzinho da Silveira Street forms part of the history of the Barata Salgueiro Neighbourhood, created in the former zone of Vale do Pereiro which, until the mid-nineteenth century, was outside the centre of Lisbon. The Vale do Pereiro was a fertile agricultural area of land, which is why it mainly consisted of farms and suburban villas for a long period of time. After the Lisbon 1755 earthquake, that destroyed a great part of the city, in one of the reconstruction plans, dating from 1756 and carried out by the Hungarian architect Carlos Mardel (1695-1763), it was already planned to open new streets in this area, but this late eighteenth century plan did not materialize. On the other hand, it was built a settlement, by order of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (1699-1782), future Marquis of Pombal (who was responsible for the reconstruction of the city). This settlement of Vale de Pereiro (see Fig. 2) was intended to function as barracks for the provincial regiments, who were called to police the city after the natural catastrophe and during its rebuilding. Falling into ruin, part of the Barracks collapsed on 5 June 1908, and were later demolished to undertake the alignment of Braamcamp Street (former Vale do Pereiro Street). The Mansion that we are going to study was part of a farm situated near the Vale do Pereiro Barracks (Rezapour, 2023).

The blue square marks to the place where the mansion will be built one hundred years later. The M marks the site where were built the Vale do Pereiro Barracks.

In the area of Vale do Pereiro, until the middle of the nineteenth century, most of the buildings were located to the South (closer to the city centre) or to the West. It was only in 1859, with a project for Street alteration and widening (Projecto de rectificação e alargamento de ruas) awarded to the French City Hall engineer and architect Pierre Joseph Pezerat (1800-1872), that the plan to open the arteries of what would become the Barata Salgueiro Neighbourhood began. However, a similar project only went ahead in 1874, following Frederico Ressano Garcias, (1847-1911) appointment as the head engineer of the Technical Department of Lisbon City Hall. Under his direction, several plans were carried out that led to the urbanization of Lisbon towards the North, in places where previously there were mainly farms. One of these plans led to the development of what was to become the Barata Salgueiro Neighbourhood on the western side of Liberdade Avenue whose construction began in 1879, finished in 1886. In 1882, began the construction work of the streets of the Barata Salgueiro Neighbourhood on land previously owned by the lawyer and capitalist Adriano Antão Barata Salgueiro (1814-1895), who donated the lands to the Lisbon City Hall, or sold them for a small amount. On 6 May 1882, the City Council, in recognition of this, gave the name Barata Salgueiro to a thoroughfare perpendicular to Liberdade Avenue, in the direction of a former Vale Pereiro Alleyway. In that same decision, other streets included within the perimeter of the Neighbourhood were also named, as a homage, after important figures in Portuguese nine-teenth century culture and politics, them being, Alexandre Herculano Street, Passos Manuel Street (renamed to Rosa Araújo Street in 1887), in the west-northwest direction, and in the north-south direction, Castilho Street and Mouzinho da Silveira Street.

The mansion is marked in blue, the other mansions of the neighbourhood are marked in purple.

The Neighbourhood (Fig. 3), connecting the Liber-dade Avenue with the older western locations of São Mamede and Rato, “was initially intended for the upper bourgeoisie, to form a scenario of mansion houses and large villas: an urban ensemble charac-terized by an architectural eclecticism, (…) in an aesthetic atmosphere inspired by the Parisian style”. However, the buildings construction was relatively slow, due to the small demographic growth and the “limited investment possibilities of the bourgeoisie” (Silva, 1994). Designed in 1887, the mansion discussed here (at no. 5 Mouzinho da Silveira Street) was one of the first to be built in the new Neigh-bourhood and was constructed at the same time as the mansion at no. 39 Barata Salgueiro Street. This second mansion, belonging to a lawyer, Alberto António de Morais Carvalho (1853-1932), was later bought (1979), for the installation of the Cinemateca Portuguesa (Portuguese Cinematheque). 

The other mansions in the Barata Salgueiro Neighbor hood were built some years later and some of them still exist, in most cases having been adapted for new non-residential functions. The building at no. 41 Rosa Araújo Street, dates to 1896, and it is now the Historic House Museum Medeiros e Almeida. It was built by Manuel Correia Júnior, for the residence of the lawyer Augusto Vítor dos Santos. Next to it, was the mansion that served as home to Antão Barata Salgueiro, situated between Barata Salgueiro Street and Liberdade Avenue, built in 1902, under the design of the architect Alfredo da Ascenção Machado (1857-1926) - demolished in 1970. The Mansion of Cipriano Ribeiro Caleia (on the other corner of the same intersection), served for a long time as the location for the Arquivo Histórico do Ministério das Obras Públicas (Historical Archive of the Ministry of Public Works). From 1907, at no. 12, Mouzinho da Silveira Street, on the opposite side of the mansion of the Wine and Vineyard Institute, is the house that belonged to the doctor João Silvestre de Almeida (1865-1936), designed by the important Portuguese architect Ventura Terra (1866-1919). This house has an Art Nouveau-stained glass window and a mural by the academic painter Veloso Salgado (1864-1945). All these buildings were designed in the eclectic French style of the late nineteenth century and are represented on the plan by Júlio António Vieira da Silva Pinto (1860-1933?) (1911), as well as no. 5, Mouzinho da Silveira Street, which we will go into more detail (Fig. 3).

Throughout the beginning of the 20th century, the Neighbourhood will have new notable buildings, including no. 25 (Alexandre Herculano Street), also by Ventura Terra, an edifice that won an architectural Portuguese prize (Prémio Valmor) in 1911. It was destined to be the home of António Tomás Quartim (1854-1923), a Portuguese-Brazilian businessman and politician. One other mansion should be mentioned, it is the building of the National Society of Fine Arts, with a project that dates from 1906, designed by the architect Álvaro Augusto Machado (1874-1944). It opened its doors only in 1913.

The First Owner of the no. 5 Mouzinho da Silveira Street mansion: Amélia Leite Ferreira

There is little information available concerning the first owner of the mansion, Amélia Leite Ferreira, but some material could be gathered from her tax liquidation process in the Contemporary Archive of the Ministry of Finance. From this document, it is acknowledged that she was born in Bahia (Brazil), on 14 August 1838, the daughter of Manuel Pinto Leite (1813-1876) and Ana Carlota de Sá Leite (1817-1885, Brazilian). She married Augusto Ferreira Pinto (1st marriage) and Manuel Alves Gonçalves Ferreira (2nd marriage). The first marriage, to Augusto Ferreira Pinto, took place in 1865, in Campo Grande (Lisbon, Portugal), at the oratory of her uncle, Sebastião Pinto Leite, 1st Viscount of Gandarinha (1815-1892), who was best man at the wedding. According to the marriage register at that time, Amélia resided in England. It was not possible to ascertain when she moved to Portugal, when she was widowed from her first marriage, or when she remarried, but it is acknowledged that her second husband, Manuel Alves Gonçalves Ferreira, died on 21 August 1895. As Amélia herself mentions in her will, one of her uncles was Joaquim Pinto Leite, from Oporto (major city in the North of Portugal), which establishes her relation to the Pinto Leite family who were renowned as traders between Brazil, Portugal (Oporto and Lisbon) and England. Besides Joaquim and Manuel (Amélias father), as well as Sebastião (best man from the first marriage), there were other siblings (João, Caetano, António, José and Delfina), all of them children of António Pinto Leite and Teresa Angélica Bernardina da Assunção Correia, owners of the Quinta da Gandarinha, in Cucujães, a village at the North of Portugal. The sons “went to Brazil, where they trained in the commercial business, perhaps with an uncle or relative established there, returning to Portugal with enough capital to start their businesses”.

One important mansion in Oporto belonged to Joaquim Pinto Leite (Fig. 4), who was a cloth merchant. He was also involved in lending capital and established a banking house, together with his brother José, who was living in London. The banking house Pinto Leite & Brother (later Pinto Leite & Brothers) had offices in London and Oporto. In 1857, he had a mansion built in Campo Pequeno (Oporto), in line with English models for private residences. It is also worth noticing that, in 1893, on the occasion of the marriage of Maria Conceição Pinto Leite (1875-1933), daughter of the Count of Olivais, with Duarte Dias da Câmara (1861-1907), Marquis of Praia e Monforte, the Amélias name is mentioned among those of the people who gave "very valuable gifts" to the bride (her cousin), offering her a diamond bracelet. The connection of Amélia Leite Ferreira to this important family belonging to the upper bourgeoisie explains, to a large extent, the considerable volume of assets that she owned, as can be inferred from her will. Amélia Leite Ferreira passed away on 17 February 1908. She had no direct descendants, so her main (but not sole) heir was her niece Honorina Nogueira Vaz (1876-1934), born in Pernambuco (Brazil) married to Artur Carneiro Vaz (1877-1933). The couple and their children lived with Amélia Leite Ferreira, in the mansion at Mouzinho da Silveira Street, then no. 7 (when Honorina died, it had already become no. 5).  

Her will (made in 1906) included various relatives and friends, who lived not only in Lisbon but also in Oporto, Rio de Janeiro, Manchester (United Kingdom), Ville dAvray and Verdun (France). Among the heirs was her goddaughter, the future Portuguese actress Amélia Rey Colaço (1898-1990), represented by her father, Alexandre Rey Colaço (1854-1928) – an important pianist and composer who, in 1894, dedicated the musical work Canção do Mondego para Piano (a fado named Song of the Mondego for Piano) to Amélia Leite Ferreira, published in 1895 (Fig. 5). From Amélia Leite Ferreira will and other documents in the same case file (at the Archive of the Ministry of Finance), it can be acknowledged that she owned several buildings in Lisbon, in addition to the mansion on Mouzinho da Silveira Street, which was then described as a house with a garden and stables. She also had properties around D. Estefânia Square, another recently urbanized part of Lisbon (with streets being opened since 1871). Her buildings were at the Pascoal de Melo Street, D. Estefânia Street and D. Estefânia square. She also had a building at Castilho Street, which was close to her house at Mouzinho da Silveira Street. Amélia Leite Ferreira had «credit papers» (shares), which, in 1906, were under the control of «Mr Jose Maria da Silva Rosa», her attorney. The «credit papers» were of several Portuguese companies: the Companhia Portugueza de Higiéne (Portuguese Hygiene Company, founded in 1891), whose founding partner and director was the capitalist Joaquim José Gonçalves Ferreira, perhaps a relative of Amélias second husband. She likewise owned shares in the Companhia de Estamparia de Alcântara (Alcântara Printing Company, founded in 1876), the Companhia de Seguros Bonança (Bonança Insurance Company, founded in 1808), the Empresa dos Recreios Lisbonense (Lisbon Recreations Company, linked to the Coliseu dos Recreios, opened in 1890), the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro de Guimarães (Guimarães Railways Company, started in 1879) and Companhia Nacional dos Caminhos de Ferro (National Railways Company, founded in 1885), the Nova Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa (Lisbons New Company of Mechanical Lifts, founded in 1882), and the Companhia do Grande Hotel Club das Caldas da Felgueira (Hotel Club of Caldas da Felgueira Company, built in 1886). In addition to these possessions, there was also the furniture and silverware that was in the mansion at the time of her death. According to the Will, part of her money was intended to build a tomb in the Prazeres Cemetery - and there is a tomb in this cemetery belonging to the Pinto Leite family, which stands out for its architecture in neo-Manueline style (late Portuguese Gothic architecture).

The Mansion at No. 5, Mouzinho da Silveira Street

The project of “Construction of a building / belonging to Mrs. Amelia Leite Ferreira / located at the corner formed by Mouzinho da Silveira Street and Alexandre Herculano Street / Parish of Coração de Jezuz” dates from 1887. At this time, Amélia was married to Manuel Alves Gonçalves Ferreira, but the command for the building was made by her, indicating that she had an important role in the financial management of the couple. The request to construct a building, “according to the enclosed designs” was submitted on November 3. The project was sent to the Health Administrator on November 10 and was approved on November 28. The plans submitted are annotated on their reverse as follows: “Approved, with the respective fee having been received and with the works to be concluded within twelve months / City Hall 22 December 1887”. The following documentation refers to June 14, 1896, when Amélia Leite Ferreira (now a widow), resident in Mouzinho da Silveira Street, wished to “build an iron and glass roof over the stairs inside the garden”. This work was carried out by an important Lisbon builder, Frederico Augusto Ribeiro (1853-1925).

Meanwhile, before that, in April 1887, Amélia Leite Ferreira had also decided to have two income buildings constructed on land adjacent to the future Mansion: “situated on Castilho Street, between Alex-andre Herculano Street and no. 2 [Barata Salgueiro Street], also facing Mouzinho da Silveira Street”. This was a sober construction which was divided into two buildings, of which number 28 remains, between Castilho Street and Alexandre Herculano Street. These buildings were constructed by Manuel António dos Santos - who may have been responsible for the Mansions construction as well.  Four years after the death of Honorina Nogueira Vaz, niece of Amélia, from 1938 onwards, the Mansion at Mouzinho da Silveira Street was occupied by the Junta Nacional do Vinho (National Wine Board), set up in 1937 (and heir of the Winemakerss Federação dos Vinicultores do Centro e Sul de Portugal - Federation of the Centre and South of Portugal). In 1944, a project was presented to change the stairway access to the buil-ding, such that the entrance was to be made through the basement, rather than the first floor, as previously. 

This change was reflected inside the building, with the basement now serving as the main entrance and a new staircase being created, which connected the basement to the first floor. On the first floor, the door leading to the Street was closed and replaced by a window. In the garden area of the Mansion, other constructions were added, namely a modernist building, designed by the architect Cassiano Branco (1897-1970) (1943), to house other services of the National Wine Board (Fig. 6), and an annex called the “João Seabra” building, constructed in the 1944. In 1986, the Board was replaced by the Portuguese Wine and Vineyard Institute. In the year of 1996, some remodelling work was undertaken on the mansion.

Description of the Mansion

Being a corner building, the facades of Mouzinho da Silveira Street and Alexandre Herculano Street are complementary and identical (Fig. 7). Both feature two main floors with French windows, plus a basement floor and a mansard floor with slate tiles. Each floor is separated from the others by a cornice. Pilasters, joining the floors in the vertical direction, cover the wall corners and either separate or join the balconies. The pilasters are smooth and have at the top, on the main floor, a floret in place of the capital. All balconies have frame closures decorated with stylized acanthus leaves. Highlighting the roof, the flush mansard windows are the most elaborate, surmounted by a small triangular pediment. The most significant facade is the one facing south (Fig. 8), initially directed towards the garden, where the entrance to the house is located. In general, this facade is like the previous ones, but the lower floor is at ground level (since the house is higher on this side, due to the unevenness of the Street). A significant element of this facade is the tower on the left side, which rises above the top floor, serving as a belvedere. The tower has a conical roof, which seems to have taken its inspiration from Gothic (and French) castles - like the Victorian Style houses of the same period. The windows on the top floor of the tower have a frame with a Neo-Manueline outline, and these underline the eclecticism of the architecture of this house. It should be observed that the Manueline style is a Portuguese form of the late gothic architecture, so the inclusion of this element in the house (on the facade facing the garden) suggests a decision to include a Portuguese component in a mainly French mansion. It is also important to notice that the facades facing the Street are more sober, while the facade facing the garden has a more exotic style.

An interesting feature of this mansion is that it is entered through the facade initially facing the garden, and it is only accessible through a gate on Mouzinho da Silveira Street. There is a connection to the tradition of a courtyard for receiving visitors (Pátio de Recebimento), a feature common to Portuguese manor houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This type of courtyard has already been studied by the art historian Hélder Carita, who described it as a “walled courtyard structure attached to the house (...). With a large doorway placed in a high wall, this space is arranged so that it plays an important function, not only as the entrance to the house, but as a space for socializing, functioning as a large outdoor room” (Carita, 2020). In later cases, namely since the nineteenth century, we believe that the aspect of socialization was lost, with patios functioning more as a first moment of separation between the outside and the inside, safeguarding family intimacy. Finally, we should mention the western facade of the house, which is the least visible from the Street. In keeping with the other facades, the openings on the left side stand out, through being wider. On the main floor, this opening gives on to a terrace, that links to the garden through a flight of stairs. Above the opening, three corbels are supporting a balcony with wrought iron railings. The balcony window is decorated on the top with a relief depicting a mascaron (male figurehead) (Fig. 9).

Interior of the Mansion

The floor plan has a rectangular base, with the widest front facing Mouzinho da Silveira Street, and the outer corner is curved. In the opposite corner there is the circular-section tower, with a spiral staircase. On all floors, the partitioning is larger on the south side than on the north side, where there are more spacious areas. Although nothing today allows us to pinpoint with certainty the function of each room, it is believed that the basement was a service area, which included a kitchen that would perhaps have been in the northwest corner under the dining room (there are chimneys on that side of the house) - as was the case with the house of Joaquim Pinto Leite in Oporto. The reception area would have been on the main floor, with the bedrooms on the upper floor. The mansard would not initially have been used for living, not least because the project submitted to the city hall only contained three floor views. When entering the building through the main door, the area of the former basement, which is now the entrance, has no decoration, which accentuates the idea of it having been a utility area. Climbing up through a staircase built in the 1940s, we enter the main floor. It is here, by the south wall, that the former main staircase is located, with wooden steps, a wooden handrail, and a wrought iron railing (Fig. 10). The staircase space is well lit by the central windows on the facade. From here a corridor separates the western and eastern wings of the house. Noteworthy in the stucco decoration of the ceilings are two inter-connected rooms on the eastern side, where the ceiling has a patterned arabesque motif. More interesting is the room with access to the terrace, which might have been the dining room, since the floor plan seems to indicate that it would have had a fireplace and a small passage to the next room (facing west), which would have been the pantry. In the stucco decoration of the ceiling, of note is the central motif inscribed in a hexagon, with an embossed decoration of intertwined foliage with bowls of fruit (grapes and pomegranates), symbolising abundance (Fig. 11). On the upper floor, to the east, is another room with a stucco ceiling forming a pattern of arabesques, in a vegetal inspiration. The northeast corner room has a tile panel that was probably put there already during the time of the National Wine Board, after 1938. It is signed by the important tile painter Jorge Colaço (1868-1942), and depicts peasants pulling a cart loaded with grapes, driven by a pair of oxen (Fig. 12). We suppose that these tiles were brought here later, as they are dated to 1920s. Moreover, in the National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Lisbon) there are other panels by the same artist, that share identical thematic (such as the Harvest - Vindima - tile panel), but they seem to be particularly related with other tiles designed by Colaço for the Ramos Pinto family in 1922 (Port Wine producers since 1880).

Household items of the Mansion in 1908

In the Archive of the Ministry of Finance, in the tax liquidation process, there is an inventory made by Amélia Leite Ferreira niece, entitled “Report of the furniture in the home of the late Senhora Dona Amélia Leite Ferreira.” This document gives us an idea of what the house would have looked like in 1908, providing us with an image of the life of an wealthy old lady of the upper bourgeoisie in the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The description in this “Report” begins in the “Vestibule,” including the staircase and corridors, two small living rooms (one on each floor), a “Visitorss Room,” “Dining Room,” “Pantry,” dressing room, bedroom, two guest rooms, “Housekeepers Room,” “Sewing Room,” “Ironing Room,” “Bath Room,” two servantss rooms and a kitchen. As for the furniture and decorative items, and highlighting only a few elements, this included various fauteuils, armchairs, sofas and clocks, pieces of biscuit porcelain and other statuettes. The main lighting is described as a “gas chandelier” (first small living room), “1 metal gas chandelier” (dining room), “1 gas burner” (Bedroom), etc. One of the most ostentatious rooms was clearly the «Visiting Room», which, in addition to two sofas, various types of chairs, four mirrors, a console and sideboards, «gas plates», six «oil paintings» (four large and two small), biscuit figures and a clock, it also had a folding screen, «1 furniture for tea service», «1 painted earthenware vase», «1 oil lamp» and «1 Piano and two stools». In addition to a table and chairs, the «Dining Room» contained a cupboard, sideboards, «white and green porcelain service», «1 teapot, sugar bowl and milk jug in crhystofle». The decoration of this room consisted of «12 different paintings» and «1 Porcelain Group», among other objects. Also interesting was the “Small Living Room,” on the upper floor, which would have served as a more intimist and recreational place, since there were bookshelves, gaming tables and “1 stereoscope” (a machine that managed to convert photographs with separate images into a three-dimensional image). In the bedrooms, of note were the presence of washbasins, sewing tables, and reliquaries (maquinetas). The only “Bathroom” mentioned had little more than the “tub” and the “water heater.” We should also note the servantss rooms (perhaps in the basement), one for the female staff and the other for the male, the first with three beds, chests of drawers, bedside tables, washbasins, and chairs; for the second, the same but five in number. In the hallway and stairs there were also several oil paintings, as well as a “sofa” and seven chairs, three on one landing and four on the next. In this way, the staircase functioned both as the centre of domestic circulation and as a living area, which has parallels with other houses of the time, such as, for example, the N. L. Anderson house (Washington, D.C., 1881-1883) by the architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886).

Final Remarks

Although there is no reference to the architect or person responsible for the project of the building, it is still interesting to consider some connection to the architect Álvaro Augusto Machado (designer of the building for the National Society of Fine Arts), who, incidentally, was married since 1905 to Alice Antonieta Ferreira Pinto Basto Mesnier de Ponsard, daughter of engineer Raoul Ronson Mesnier de Ponsard, who created the New Company of Mecha-nical Lifts in Lisbon - in which Amélia Leite Ferreira owned shares. Besides, some projects by Álvaro Machado were built by the civil constructor Frederico Augusto Ribeiro, who was responsible for part of the work on the Mansion at Mouzinho da Silveira Street, in 1896. Nevertheless, the available data does not provide us with the name of the architect of this mansion. There are some similar contemporary buildings in Lisbon, namely due to the presence of the tower, but also of unknown authorship. An analogous tower can be found in another Lisbons mansion at the Luís Fernandes Street, dating from 1883 (not far from Amelias mansion). A different tower, with a square section, more typical of Portuguese castles, is present in the mansion of António Almeida da Costa (1832-1915), in Vila Nova de Gaia (near Oporto), which also dates from the turn of the nineteenth century to the twentieth century. 

The cylindrical tower, with a conical roof, reminiscent of gothic castles, is evocative of the Tower House of William Burges (1827-1881) (London, 1875-1881), of which an engraving with a floor plan of the main floor was published in the periodical The Building News Magazine, on 23 April 1880. Since the Pinto Leite family had a connection to England, it is hypothesized that some inspiration was taken from its architecture for Amélia Leite Ferreiras mansion. We can assume that the house as it stands today is moderately modified, partly due to the absence of original furniture and decorations. It is also important to underline the transformation of the architecture, altered with the passage from the main entrance to the basement, when originally the main entrance was done by an outside staircase to a door on the first floor. In the initial plan, as was the case at Pinto Leites house in Oporto, or even Burgess, in London, the basement would have been used for services and the kitchen, the ground floor for reception and the first floor for the bedrooms. Admission to intimacy/privacy was done through several levels, starting with the reception outdoor patio that led to the lobby and from there to the main floor. Rooms, more private, would be sent to an upper level, accessible only to the residents or more intimate guests. However, despite the transformations resulting from adapting a private house to headquarters of a public institution, it maintains its eclectic exterior appearance, typical of Lisbons mansions built between late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. In the interior, the stucco decoration and the main staircase are also preserved, maintaining the memory of the nineteenth century Amélia Leite Ferreiras house. As we could see, the investigation about this house shows that it is a significant example of the small palaces that were erected for the bourgeoisie in the newly urbanized areas of Lisbon. 

Not only it was inspired by the French Belle-Époque and Victorian architecture, but it was one of the first buildings that was erected in the Barata Salgueiro Neighbourhood. The fact that the house was ordered by a rich woman, does not seem to have a significant impact on the interior organization of the house. However, in 1908, when was made a description of the its furniture and decoration, we can notice that there was no mention of a billiard or a smoking room, typically men rooms. On another hand, there was an important presence of small oratories in the bedrooms, but not a chapel, which, nevertheless suggest a more female approach of everyday life during this chronological period.

CONCLUSION

The main theme of this paper is, as we have seen, a mansion built in an area of Lisbon that was being urbanized at the end of the 19th century, at same time that the house was being built. It belonged to a woman from the upper bourgeoisie, a widow, who lived there with a niece and her family. As a lady whose family, being Portuguese, had become rich in Brazil and later returned to Portugal, she is an example of a woman who played a prominent role in the society of the time, being owner of a large fortune, consisting mainly in properties and company shares. The mansion, in turn, is a good example of the typology of houses that were built at this period in Lisbon and other large cities, combining inspiration from French and English architecture, together with some Portuguese elements, reflecting the tastes and interests of the owner.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This article was only possible thanks to the research recommendations of the architect Hélder Carita, a specialist in palatial architecture and decorative arts. The availability of the Vine and Wine Institute, which allowed us to visit its facilities, also contributed to the article. We also appreciate the help of Cláudia E. Santos, author of a Doctoral dissertation on Jorge Rey Colaço, about the decorative tiles. Finally, we would like to thank the support given by the Institute of History of Art (FCSH-UNL) to which we belong.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The authors assert that no apparent conflicts of interest or the personal relationships could have influenced the work described in this research.

Article References:

  1. “Artists Homes, No. 1, Mr. W. Burges House at Holland Park”, The Building News, 23-4-1880, 490, 497.
  2. A Semana de Lisboa, 6, 5-2-1893, 45.
  3. Arquivo Contemporâneo do Ministério das Finanças, Districto de Lisboa, Freguezia de Coração de Jesus, Ano de 1907 a 1908, Autos de Liquidação de D. Amelia Leite Ferreira.
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Article Info:

Academic Editor

Dr. Sonjoy Bishwas, Executive, Universe Publishing Group (UniversePG), California, USA.

Received

May 7, 2024

Accepted

June 25, 2024

Published

July 9, 2024

Article DOI: 10.34104/bjah.02401660176

Corresponding author

Margarida Elias*

Art History Institute, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa - School of Social Sciences and Humanities / IN2PAST - Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory, Lisbon, Portugal.

Cite this article

Elias M . (2024). The mansion at Mouzinho da Silveira Street, in Lisbon, Portugal, Br. J. Arts Humanit., 6(4), 166-176. https://doi.org/10.34104/bjah.02401660176 

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