From the road, Casa do Cipreste looks unassuming.
No signal of what it is, who built it, or what lies beyond it. You'd walk past the gate and think very little of it. This house is a gem tucked away in the mountains of Sintra.

Raul Lino is often called the father of the Portuguese house. Here, on a slope overlooking the Palácio da Pena and the Castelo dos Mouros, he built a version he kept for himself. Today, Pedro steps inside his great-uncle’s home. The house has been weaved into the hillside, with multiple split levels each encasing a room more unique than the other.

With tiles and pieces of furniture designed by Raul himself, nothing is left up to chance and the house slowly reveals itself to you. Every new glance rewards you with something you hadn’t noticed yet. The dining room, built in an oval shape so that every conversation would flow around the table and no one would go unheard. The walls built to accommodate the natural stones that were already there.

Time seems to go by differently there, as sunlight fills the house one room at a time, illuminating new corners to be discovered. It is well lived-in, and that’s the beauty of it. Raul’s grandson lives there now, which means the house has never had to explain itself to a stranger. Some things, it turns out, are worth keeping exactly as they were.