I'll be sharing a mini city guide to Porto very soon, but I thought I would brighten up this Monday morning and share one of my highlights from our recent trip to Porto: Serralves Villa. The villa was one of my must sees for the trip, as I'd seen so many gorgeous pictures of the pink art deco home when researching Porto. The villa is part of Serralves Park which also houses the Contemporary Art Museum and beautiful gardens. The day we headed to the villa, the sunshine was beautiful and the house looked even more stunning in the sun than I had imagined.
I hadn't ever seen anything like this pink art deco house and gardens before, it was so beautiful. We spent a happy few hours of our morning exploring Serralves Park. I really enjoyed our visit; it was really lovely to explore outside central Porto and see more of the area. Plus the park was very calming after the hustle and bustle of Porto.
The house is now a gallery space, but as we wandered around the grounds of the villa and had a look at the art deco detailed interior, we couldn't help but wonder who had lived there and imagine the house as someone's home. Serralves Villa and the surrounding Park were commissioned by the 2nd Count of Vizela, Carlos Alberto Cabral, on the grounds of his family’s former summer residence on the outskirts of Porto. The house was designed and constructed between 1925 and 1944 and the Count and his wife Blanche Daubin moved into the villa in 1944. However it's said tthe Count felt far too removed from his social circle in central Porto and the cost of maintaining the house had become too much. The Count and his wife ended up only living in the house for a few years before selling it Delfim Ferreira, the Count of Riba d'Ave in the early 1950s due to financial difficulties. One of the conditions of the sale however was that no changes would be made to the property.
I really enjoyed our walk through the gardens. The lush greenery and the turquoise of the water make the pink of the house even more stunning. Even the clay paths are pink! You get to experience a different perspective of the villa from the gardens, and you can see the top of the Chapel on the top right of the villa from the garden view. The chapel dates back to the 19th century and was given a new exterior covering that ensured that it would be blend with the look of the building.
I would really recommend heading out of the centre to explore Serralves. It's easy to get to, we got the 502 bus from near our apartment in Bolhão and it was less than a 10 minute walk from the bus-stop to the park. To see the villa, you'll need to get a ticket when you arrive at the park, which is €10, but that gives you entry to the gardens, villa and the museum of contemporary art.
