House of Azevedo or House of the Stone Tower and Chapel

Category: Civil Architecture > House

District: Viseu > São João da Pesqueira > Paredes da Beira

Location:

Casa de Azevedo stands in Paredes da Beira, west of the historic center of São João da Pesqueira, next to Rua da Corredoura. Situated on a gently sloping terrain, it dominates a small agricultural hillside dotted with fruit trees.

Access is on foot via a dirt path or alongside the granite stone wall that defends the complex. The surroundings retain rural features, with olive groves and vineyards in the vicinity.

Origin and Evolution:

Its origins date back to a medieval tower erected in the 11th century to guard the keys of the old local castle. Over the following centuries, the building expanded: at the end of the Middle Ages, it gained a residential wing, and in the 17th and 18th centuries, it received the lateral wings that today give it a "P" shaped floor plan.

It successively belonged to the Távora, Azevedo, and Vieira families, whose coat of arms with three keys and eagles is carved in stone on the chapel's portal and on the interior walls of one of the main rooms.

Architecture and Sacred Art:

The house features sober granite facades, with sash windows and rectangular doors framed by discreet cornices. Inside, brown chestnut wood ceilings are divided into polygonal panels, while some rooms retain stone arches reminiscent of the old stables.

The adjoining chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and the Holy Martyrs, is a Baroque example in granite. The portal displays garlands, volutes, and shells, while the interior is notable for its entirely stone-sculpted altarpiece and the painted barrel vault ceiling, where heraldic and vegetal motifs are repeated.