The Foundation

The Casa de Mateus was completed in 1744. Magical and symbolic of a much older story, the Manor House is a time machine that enables us to traverse the last five-hundred years of the history of Portugal, Europe and the world. It is a point in the universe where people, ideas, documents, and works of art, from a variety of latitudes, converge to constitute a distinctive collection that we invite guests to explore.

Once past a narrow and rustic path beyond the entrance gate, visitors encounter a unique landscape: the facades of the Chapel House, mirrored in an adjacent pond, and framed by an exuberant natural park. The stunning landscape offers visitors a perfect combination of history and nature, the singular relationship between the geometry of the space, its memories and protagonists, brought to us over the course of time.

The Casa de Mateus, its gardens, agricultural and woodland areas are an architectural and landscape marvel. They are continuously reinventing themselves, and have revealed how, over time, it is possible to reinterpret the matrix imprinted by Nasoni, who consolidated timelessness as a characteristic of the baroque.

In addition to the main facade’s dramatic splendour and rich decoration, the entire complex is marked by the plant’s rationality, rigorous metrics and modulation.

The interior, comprised of a succession of rooms, from the Noble Hall to the domestic wings, the library, the Religious Museum or the more social wing located to the south, all exhibit a particularly expressive collection.

The furniture dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and the precious objects, tell the tale of the Manor House. Twelve generations of the same family dwelled within the House until the Casa de Mateus Foundation was established in 1970.

The collection of paintings is comprised of period pieces, still lifes or the traditional Italian putti. The pipe organ, which guests can listen to in the Chapel, as well as the numerous period instruments, remind us of the constant presence of music. The impressive set of relics imprint upon us the religious context of the baroque period. The volumes that make up the library, an important representation of Western culture and its crossroads with other worlds, tell a tale of the family’s redactorial desires, as well as their connection to the academic, ecclesiastic or diplomatic fields.

The gardens, organic bodies which have been continually recreated over the centuries, are a unique complement to the Manor House and extend along the same central axis, comprising a notable network of stairs, hidden nooks and surprising revelations.

If upon entering the property, the lake surprises guests due to its relationship with the architecture, the rose garden that borders the south wing, confers a special chromatic and aromatic exuberance, which contrasts with the rational design of the lower and upper parterres.

To the east, guests encounter vestiges of the original gardens where a majestic tunnel of cedars extends to the rural landscape beyond. The vegetable plots, which connect the gardens and the woodland area, make up a complex ecosystem that respects the rhythms and conditions needed to attain an environmental balance.

Integrally linked to the creation of the Douro demarcated region in 1756, the Casa de Mateus discovered one of its essential matrixes in the vineyard and its wine.

The wine cellar, dating back to the 16th century and still fully operational, processes grapes from ancient vineyards - authentic live fossils imprinted with the memory of ancestral practices - as well as from other more recently planted vineyards that follow contemporary principles of sustainability and balance designed to render distinctly unique wines.