It was in 1925 that Marcelino Nunes Correia bought two modest chalets to give to his two daughters, in one of the main streets of the small fishing town of Cascais. This town was much sought after by the royal family, following the rising popularity of sea-bathing. 

Marcelino Nunes Correia was what we can call a self-made man. He left his hometown, Pedrógão Grande, at the age of nine to work as a grocer in a grocery store in the São Domingos ao Rossio area of Lisbon. He later owned the famous Café Nicola, in Rossio, as well as the Sociedade Abel Pereira da Fonseca, in Lisbon. 

But Marcelino was more than a businessman. He was also a lover of the arts and known for having good taste, doing a series of renovations on the two cottages, being the one on the right, with a blue and white facade, for his daughter Rosa, and the one on the left for his daughter Piedade, with a facade decorated with red friezes and polychrome tile frames from the house of Sant’ Anna on the windows and doors. The garden was common to the two cottages, French-inspired, with flowerbeds outlined by boxwood, and semicircular masonry benches lined with tile panels. It was up to Piedade, who loved gardening, to take care of their Garden.  

The inside of the buildings wasn’t neglected, and that can be seen in the stone floor with geometric motifs, the impressive iron staircase with golden trim, or in the walls of the lounge, lined with hand-painted tiles. The decoration, with period furniture, crystal chandeliers and bronze candelabras, canvases by artists that span the century (with one of Moura Girão’s famous roosters being featured in one of the main walls of the salon) help to enhance the building’s manorial feel. 

In what is now known today as The Pérgola House, named after the structure that stands in the garden on the top left, lived Piedade, who devoted herself to the education of her only son Manuel and to her beloved garden. After the death of his parents, Manuel decided to open the doors of his house to the public, and The Pérgola House was born in 1985, becoming the first tourist accommodation in the town of Cascais, as attested by permit number 1 at the Town Hall. 

Despite the touristic nature, the house remains furnished and decorated as it was when Piedade lived there, preserving memories of a house always full of family and friends in every corner, in every photo, in every place at the table or on the sofa.