The Fonte da Pipa palace
The Fonte da Pipa palace

The Fonte da Pipa palace

The Fonte da Pipa palace

Ode to northern Europe palaces

Loulé, Portugal

Known for its carnival and market of great beauty, Loulé is a city of 70,000 inhabitants located in the south of Portugal, in the Algarve region.

It is built between 1878 and 1897 the small castle of Pipa palace which will never be occupied by its owner. Death a year before the end of the works, the politician and the businessman Marçal de Azevedo Pacheco will never live in this palace. Yet the man had to make this place a true ode to beauty. Inspired by many palaces he had visited during numerous trips to Northern Europe, he had mandated the architect José Verdugo, recognized for the Loulé Market he had designed, as well as the decorator Pereira Cao who worked at Palace in Lisbon.

Thus in 1920, the palace is sold to a rich banker called Dias Sancho, who would see the electrification of the premises. After the death of his son who receive the property at the death of his father, the small palace was subsequently sold, rented and resold until it was abandoned around the new millennium.

It is hard to find the information to explain the reasons for this abandonment and the exact year.

Despite the years that have passed, the community still shows (a little) interest in the potential of the places. In 2010, the small palace Fonte de la Pipa was part of a cultural project where African art was presented.

Since then, no formal project has come to fruition, hence the unenviable situation of the places today. Tagged and vandalized, the small palace seems to be at a non-return point if nothing is done in the next years. 

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