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Thus, the building, with its interior doors in the shape of horseshoe, ceilings of beautifully carved wood and shutters of some of the exterior doors, seems to want, in this way, to reconcile itself with an obscure and distant past.
During the last years of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the Algarve experienced a remarkable period of economic expansion. By comparison, S. Brás de Alportel reached its peak earlier due to the appearance around the middle of the century of a group of wealthy cork merchants.
Thus during the 1870s and 1880s, on the outskirts of the town a number of imposing edifices began to appear which were in marked contrast to the crude environment and the calloused hands of the owners.
The sense of great euphoria, generated by the colossal profits coming from the cork trade, brought to S. Brás de Alportel artists, architects and skilled artisans who quickly transformed the landscape of the village and its outskirts. They brought, most of all, urban ideas and models which the nouveau-riches quickly adopted.
The dominant characteristic of the architecture of the time was the inclusion of exotic elements from foreign cultures or remote times. In the Algarve there is an important grouping of public and private buildings which feature many Arab elements. These seem not just to reflect merely a passing fancy but rather represent a period of nostalgia for an Arab past, remembered only in legends and children's stories.
