R. José Antunes Dos Santos 16, Sintra Sintra, Sintra, 11 2710 575

This is a historic palacete on a 6,663 m² site at the edge of Sintra’s historic centre, 500 metres from the town’s old quarter. Designed by the Portuguese architect Manuel Joaquim Norte Júnior, it combines the main house, a garden, and grounds that extend down toward a wooded valley. The property is being sold as a residential redevelopment opportunity. A recent attempt to license it for hotel use was refused by the Câmara Municipal de Sintra, and buyers should treat this as a home restoration and residential development project, not a hotel acquisition.

The house has five bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ground floor holds the main social spaces, a living room, a dining room, and a library, all with direct access to the gardens. A three-flight staircase with stained glass windows runs through the house and is one of its defining interior features. Outside, terraces and gardens open onto views of the Sintra mountains and, in places, the Atlantic Ocean.

Built between 1940 and 1944 for the businessman Rocha Brito, who named it Villa Amélia after his wife, the house is known locally as the Casa dos Telhados Verdes, the house of the green roof tiles. Norte Júnior, one of the most prolific Portuguese architects of the early twentieth century, also designed the Casino da Villa, now the MU. SA Museum of Sintra Art. His transitional style, between late Art Deco and early Modernism, defines the house: a compact three-storey volume, a west-facing loggia under a curved pediment, rusticated stonework, blue-and-white azulejo panels, and a roof of glazed green tiles. The house was restored in 1971 without altering Norte Júnior’s original detailing.

The grounds preserve an old garage with stone dressings, a well, a stone tank, two mature stone pines, and an Araucaria. The garden is a romantic-style pleasure garden with species from several continents, now in need of restoration. The lower ground was historically farmed and still holds walnut, fig, and olive trees. Views open north to the beaches and south and west to Sintra and the Castelo dos Mouros, with the Serra de Sintra to the southwest.

The site totals 6,663 m² across four registered parcels, zoned mainly as Solo Urbano, Espaços Habitacionais 2 under the Sintra Municipal Master Plan, a residential category. Part of the site lies within the protection zone of a classified archaeological monument and is subject to a military aeronautical servitude, both of which affect future construction.

Between 2022 and 2024, a previous owner sought approval to convert the property into a 31-unit boutique hotel. The Câmara Municipal de Sintra refused this proposal twice, most recently in August 2024, citing archaeological sensitivity near a classified prehistoric burial site, the scale and landscape impact of the proposed new buildings, and non-compliance with local roof and alignment rules. That refusal was specific to the hotel scheme. The site’s residential zoning and buildable rights remain in place, and a project scaled as a private residence starts from a different position, though any future construction on the lower and eastern grounds will still require an archaeological diagnostic campaign and heritage review.

This is a restoration project as much as a construction one. Years of limited maintenance mean the house and grounds will need substantial investment to return to a good standard. Buyers should confirm zoning, servitudes, exact built area, and the archaeological protection zone with the Câmara Municipal de Sintra and an independent Portuguese lawyer before making an offer.
#ref:0547