The Palácio da Fonte da Pipa, a 19th century building located in the Goncinha area of Loulé has been irreparably damaged by fire.
The palace roof has collapsed and the building’s interior almost totally destroyed by a fire that started just after 06:00 this morning, Tuesday, January 24th
Firefighters from Loulé, Albufeira and São Brás were sooon at the site with nine vehicles to tackle the blaze..
The Palace is owned by a Britsh property business which had hoped to build a housing estate in the palace grounds but the property had become inhabited by a variety of homeless and Roma, none of whom are reported to have been injured.
The property has been abandoned for years and was in a lamentable state of repair. It was last used to host an African art exhibition by José de Guimarães, back in 2010.
Loulé mayor said the loss of the building was of deep regret but it was privately owned so not part of the city’s registered heritage.
In comments to Sul Informação, the mayor, Vitor Aleixo, said "The owners never cared about the palace. The palace was the main asset of the property. Now everything will be more difficult as the owner has lost the main asset. If it was complicated before, then now ...”
Despite the intention of the owner of the property, "the Loulé city plan (PDM) does not recognise that area as able to become an urbanisation."
Before Aleixo was mayor, the council blocked a planning application from the corporate owner and in the past has tried to buy the property.
Extract no. 355/2001 (2nd series) in Diario da Republica reads: "It is hereby announced that the Secretary of State for Local Administration, by order of 31 October 2001, at the request of the Municipality of Loulé, declared the public utility of the expropriation, as a matter of urgency, of eight parcels of land to be followed Referenced and identified in the attached plan:
Parcel 01.1, with an area of 2414 m2, property of Quinta da Fonte da Pipa - Urbanizaciones, Lda., Described in the Loulé Land Registry under number 32 052;"
This compulsory purchase of land was linked to the Loule bypass with the council not taking the opportunity of buying the palace at the same time.
Joomla Gallery makes it better. Balbooa.com
Photos taken by Peter Kain in 2008, when the Palace was open to the public under the ALLGARVE scheme of showing contemporize art installations in the newly restored rooms.
The work of restoration was underway then, albeit slow but as you can see it was being done to a high/expensive standard.
History:
As its name suggests, the palace was built near a natural water source.
The land was bought by Marçal Pacheco, in order to erect a palace similar to those he saw in his travels to Northern Europe. Pacheco was a lawyer, a politician in the Partido Regenerador, a mayor of Loulé and future uncle of the famous Eng. Duarte Pacheco, Minister of Public Works of the Estado Novo.
Marçal Pacheco built the palace to receive King D. Carlos during a visit to the Algarve but the King switched to the palace in Estoi.
The property was named Quinta da Esperança but was always known by locals as Fonte da Pipa.
The construction of the palace began in 1875 under the builder Jose Verdugo who used the painter and ceramist Jose Pereira Júnior from Lisbon.
Marçal Pacheco died in 1896 without having seen the completion of his dream palace. In 1920, his family sold the property to Manuel Dias Sancho, a banker from S. Brás de Alportel.
In the years 1927-29, the assets of Manuel Dias Sancho's bank were seized by the Banco do Algarve.
Later, Francisco Guerreiro Pereira bought the property from the bank and introduced exotic plants to the gardens. After the death of Francisco Guerreiro Pereira, his son, Dr. Guerreiro Pereira, from Faro, inherited the property. In 1981, the doctor sold the property to the company "Quinta da Fonte da Pipa, Urbanizações, Lda".
As with any old palace worth its salt, there are tales of ghosts and strange goings on. Even today, many locals believe the palace is haunted by those that died and were buried in the ground as a result of the great ‘flu pandemic of 1918.
Quinta da Fonte da Pipa - Urbanizaçoes is registered at Barros de Almancil, Apartado 3005, 8135-901, Almancil. The company was formed on Jan 1st, 1982, with a social capital of €100,000 and is involved in the construction of buildings, both residential and non residential.
Perhaps the Directors now would like to reconstruct the palace.
_________
For a view of the deplorable state of this palace before fire took hold, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ8Hj8QlThk
