Palácio dos Terenas, Porto

What survives within Palácio dos Terenas is a medieval defensive tower: the Tower of Pedro-Sem, built to help protect Porto. Its story begins in the first half of the fourteenth century, when Pedro de Sem, chancellor to King Afonso the Fourth, commissioned it. At that time it formed part of a defensive line and a rural estate at the edge of the medieval town; it also gave royal authority a conspicuous presence here.

Notice the tower’s compact rectangular mass and its battlemented crown. Centuries of rebuilding have changed it, yet the medieval character remains, especially in the paired windows with their three-lobed arches. Much of its remaining exterior is absorbed into the later palace beside it, built by the Brandão family in the eighteenth century.

The property stayed with the Brandãos from the fifteenth century until the late nineteenth century, then passed to the Counts and Marquesses of Terena, whose name the palace retains. In nineteen nineteen, the Diocese of Porto acquired both palace and tower for use as an episcopal residence. The tower’s interior was extensively remade in nineteen eighty-six, so the old rooms behind these walls are largely unknown.