Upstream from the centre of Porto, the Palace of Freixo faces the Douro from a terrace above the water. It was designed in the eighteenth century by Nicolau Nasoni, the Italian architect whose long Portuguese career shaped the appearance of the city and above all the tower of the Clerigos. Freixo shows his manner in concentrated form: a facade animated by curves and broken pediments, granite carved with a lightness the material rarely allows, statues and urns punctuating the roofline, and a plan turned deliberately towards the river view. Inside, painted ceilings, stuccowork and framed panels continue the same decorative logic. Built as a residence for an ecclesiastical patron and later put to industrial use, the palace was restored and converted into a hotel, which has kept its principal rooms intact. Classified as a national monument, it is filmed here as one of the clearest surviving statements of Baroque civil architecture in northern Portugal.
