The oldest house in Porto is next to the Cathedral of Porto, in the “Alley of the Swirls”. Of Flemish aspect, with the chimney placed to the top and right in the middle of the façade. As it is characteristic of this style and that is thought to have been constructed in the first half of century XIV.
A hidden relic that few people know, because there is a gate that seals the entrance to the Alley where the house is located. An unapproachable preciousness.
The place where the main façade of the house stands is unknown to most of the people of Porto; known as Beco dos Redemoinhos is an obscure place, with semi-hidden access and small dimensions. But it was not always so; this place was called Adro de Trás da Sé, and it was a public space much more airy, vast and important than at present. To understand their formation we will have to go back in time, until the time when the construction of the Romanesque Cathedral began.
It is a dwelling of medieval origin, which in Porto historiography is generally pointed out, due to the singular design of the finish of its façade, similar to that of the houses of the Netherlands, as a result of the influence that, since the Middle Ages, architecture of that European region would have had in Porto.