This magnificent Palace, is part of an era of portuguese architecture that gave rise to the so-called Brazilian houses and it’s located in the municipality of Póvoa de Lanhoso, next to the Ave river, in the vineyard landscape of Entre Douro e Minho.
It was built at the end of the 19th century, and completed in 1906 and it has been transformed into property in an agro-livestock society since 1960.
Villa Beatriz is made up of a quadrangular body with two floors with mansards, and four three-storey crenellated towers built into the corners. The main facade is recessed, to integrate the entrance hall and a balcony on the second floor. The last floor of the towers, where storage areas and staff rooms would be located, is illuminated by four-lobed glasses, in axis with the windows.
The interior is spacious and particularly refined, with the original decorative objects and original furniture. Worthy of note is the staircase, which occupies the
center of the plan, with a wooden balustrade, a gallery with vaguely neo-Moorish arcades, and walls and ceilings painted by hand and worked with stucco, which would have
made by the same artists who worked at Palácio da Bolsa, in Porto.
There is no knowledge of who the architect may have been (it is thought to have been Italian) because the archives of the City Hall burned and this information was lost.
The gardens, which in this type of housing generally include tropical plants imported, also exhibit a lot of statuary, and integrate a forest and a large granite pool in the region. The farm, which extends over 50 ha of land, has extensive vineyards, a modern cellar in operation, installed in “Casa Nova”, a building built in 1898, attached to the palace, an agricultural and livestock farm, a rural museum and a river beach.
From the vineyard, dating from 1992 and idealized by Carlos Guimarães, Carmen’s husband, was created the wine Quinta Villa Beatriz and Terras de Lanhoso, where the grape variety Loureiro predominates, with a smaller percentage of Arinto and Trajadura, being considered one of the best wines of the region, medaled and awarded for countless years consecutive.
An A.S company, is the legitimate owner of the Palace with 50 hectares of land, 4 houses, cellar, press room,laboratory, tasting room, office, mills, an old barn and adjoining facilities to the same and various dependencies such as covered, bathrooms, external kitchens,laundry.
There are 11 hectares of vines that can be increased by another 18 hectares. Agricultural implements, tractors and a van are also part of the property.