Casa de Sezim

In 1376 Dona Maria Mendes Serrazinha gave this estate to Afonso Martins, a descendant of a companion of Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal. The vellum document recording it is still in the house archive. The same family has held the place ever since, which is six and a half centuries and counting.

What stood here then was a fortified tower. It was extended over the following four hundred years into the house that survives, its coat of arms over the entrance gate replaced in 1795 and the 18th-century facade completed shortly before.

The reason to come is on the walls. In the 19th century the painter and architect August Roquemont oversaw the transformation of the interiors and bought a set of panoramic wallpapers from Zuber & Cie of Rixheim in Alsace, the manufactory that made the finest block-printed papers in Europe and still does. They run around the reception rooms, depicting scenes of the Portuguese empire, European history and the Americas, and they amount to one of the largest collections of panoramic paper on the Iberian peninsula. They have been properly restored and they are extraordinary.

There are eight rooms, six doubles and two suites, several with four-poster beds, furnished in the same register as the house rather than done up for guests. There is a chapel, a library, a billiards room, gardens, a pool and a tennis court.

The estate makes vinho verde, and has done since at least the 1930s, with the old winemaking equipment still standing on the property. The wine wins prizes and the tastings happen on the veranda with regional food.

The house is classified as a monument of municipal interest and belongs to the Solares de Portugal association. Guimarães, where the country began, is four kilometres away.