Casa do Penedo, Portugal: the strangest house in the world

It is considered one of the strangest houses in the world and, since 2014, few can remain indifferent to its peculiarity. Opened on 13th October 1974, Casa do Penedo, known to many as the Flintstones' house, is located in the Serra de Fafe and was built between four large rocks that serve as its structure. This is Casa do Penedo, Portugal: the strangest house in the world.

idealista/news has spoken to Vítor Rodrigues, one of the sons of the couple who saw the four rocks and realised that it was a good place to build a mountain shelter. Vítor told us a little about the history of Casa do Penedo.

Casa do Penedo and its history

The history of Casa do Penedo began one spring day in 1973. "We came from Guimarães, the Rodrigues family, to walk through the mountain of Fafe and we stopped at the top of the mountain. It rained a lot that day, we had to have a snack inside the car, and we stayed there for many hours, us three brothers and my parents" says Vítor Rodrigues.

At the end of that day the longed-for sun appeared, and Vítor and his brothers went cricket hunting, which was actually the goal of the day. It was then that Vitor's parents, after spending so many hours in the car, realised that this would be an easy place to build a mountain shelter. "A kind of place where we could have a snack on rainy days, like on a day like that, or even a weekend or even a holiday," added Rodrigues.

The parents were enchanted by the wonderful view and went back to the Serra de Fafe to find out who owned the land. But they discovered that these four boulders did not have just one owner, but three different owners. Vítor's parents managed to buy the land and started building the house, and it is this event that marks the birth of Casa do Penedo.

Eugénio Martins

Casa do Penedo: the experience of living without electricity

Who built Casa do Penedo? Considered the strangest house in Portugal and the world, it was built by the employees of Vítor's father, who was a textile engineer and owned a textile industry in Guimarães. "At that time, people worked on Saturdays in the industry, and there was always a group of four or five employees from his own company who came and did the house on Saturdays", his son explains.

The house was always accompanied by the eyes of Vítor's father and it took about a year to be built. The main objective was to make a place to spend holidays or weekends in the middle of nature, but without spoiling the landscape. 

"My parents were born in the 1930s and 1940s. At that time there wouldn't have been much technology in Guimarães, or in any other part of the country. They wanted to relive the good old days, without technology, here at Casa do Penedo. No television, no telephone, no electricity... they wanted to relive those times of their youth. So they decided right away that the house would have no electricity, no telephone and no television".

Vitor's father believed that television disturbed the functioning of the family, and the telephone was something he certainly didn't want while on holiday. Casa do Penedo still has no telephone, television or electricity, however it does have water and gas. "Everything like a normal house, but without technology," explains Vítor Rodrigues.

This unique building is a way of trying to demonstrate to people that it is possible to live without technology, in an age when it seems we can't live without it. "In fact, if we think about it, there are still many parts of the world where people don't have access to electricity or technologies. Casa do Penedo is an experience of spending a day or the weekend without these comforts", emphasises Vítor.

Eugénio Martins

Casa do Penedo is one of the most talked about houses in the world

The Casa da Pedra or Casa do Penedo, as many call it, was designed to be a discreet, integrated house. It never managed to be discreet, and in the 1970s it was already much in evidence and much talked about. It brought the Portuguese Rally to the Lameirinha road, which is now one of the roads that is part of the famous Rally.

However, the house began to attract more interest from the curious when a Japanese television station, Tokyo TV, made a programme about the curious architecture of Casa do Penedo.

Vítor explains that "they ran the programme in Tokyo, many people saw it and went looking for information about Casa do Penedo. They discovered it on the Strange Buildings in the World website, which is an interactive website where people, in 2014, could vote for the strangest houses in the world".

After this report the media attention started to accelerate. "In a short time we were already in front of Casa da Música, in Porto. The viewers of the Tokyo TV report must have voted, because 10 days after the programme aired, the house went from eighth place to first place in the world."  

Before long, the house was also news in London and in several Portuguese newspapers and television channels. It started to get a bit complicated, enjoying the peace and quiet and the landscape in a relaxed way. There were so many tourists wanting to see the house that some even jumped over the fences just to take a picture.

The Rodrigues family realised that there was a strong desire to visit the house, "so we organised ourselves to receive tourists and have a series of experiences. This is how we dealt with the situation," adds Vítor Rodrigues.

Vítor and his family continue to spend their holidays at Casa do Penedo, but now they go a little more out of season. "We continue to use the house as a holiday home, but we are ready to receive tourists all year round."

Eugénio Martins

Casa do Penedo: a well of experiences for the most curious

There are various activities that can be enjoyed at Casa do Penedo, in Fafe. The most common is the guided tour, where the history is told and the architecture of the house is explained. However, those who visit the house are always asked not to take videos, nor photographs of the interior of the property, because in spite of everything, it continues to be a family holiday home. It's a way of keeping their privacy intact.

There is also the possibility of reserving the swimming pool, which is built on a rock and spend the day enjoying the landscape from the top of the mountain, watching the stars at night or being a shepherd for a day.

"It is possible to do a shepherding programme. We have a shepherd here who does not belong to Casa do Penedo, but he collaborates with us, teaches people and they can have these experiences of being shepherds for a day, after which they are entitled to a snack," adds Vítor.

There are several special and personalised programmes available on the Casa do Penedo website. In the future it will also be possible to choose the local accommodation option. "We are going to and we want to make local accommodation here on the mountain, a project has already been presented to Fafe City Council, which was recently approved as being of municipal interest. This would mean that we could receive people and they could stay here a little longer with us", says Vítor Rodrigues.