This elegant house began as a newly built small palace in 1875, commissioned by Brazilian émigré João Silva Monteiro together with Arnaldo Ribeiro Barbosa. In 1895 it became the home of João Henrique Andresen and Joana Lehmann Andresen, whose family name it still carries. Joana shaped two of the estate’s signature outdoor rooms: the Rose Garden and the J Letter Garden.
The camellia boundaries around them came from Porto horticulturist Alfredo Moreira da Silva. Two grandchildren raised here, Sophia de Mello Breyner and Ruben A., grew into celebrated writers, and this estate fed their imaginations. Take a moment here, while standing safely, to notice how a private family setting opens into a much larger garden world.
The Portuguese state bought the estate in 1949, and the University of Porto began its Botanical Garden here in 1951. Road building for the Arrábida Bridge later removed eight hectares from what had been a twelve-hectare garden. Today Casa Andresen belongs within Porto’s Botanical Garden, part of the University of Porto’s Museum of Natural History and Science since 2015. Inside this house, the Hall of Biodiversity–Ciência Viva Center opened in 2017, giving the old residence a public scientific purpose.
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