Vivenda/ Chalé Vitoria

Vivenda/chalé Vitoria, looks like a church building, but is nevertheless a vila in historical revival style from 1918, is located on the infamous N125. The client of this Vivenda Vitoria was an Italian manufacturer who also had a canning factory built near the harbor at the height of the fishing industry in the early years of the 20th century.

The Italian owner sold the building to banker José Guerreiro Mendonça, who sold it in turn to Tomás Saias, a former Brazilian emigrant who, together with his brothers, were the founders of the Luso-Brasileira cannery and the Madrugada Company in Olha. Daughter Silvéria Saias was the last resident/owner of the vivenda and lived there with her husband and children until 1970.

In 2000, the municipality of Olhão acquired the building and the now dilapidated ruin of the vivenda has become something of a landmark along the busy N125, partly due to the striking graffiti.

This villa is a combination of Neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau and expresses the well-being of the bourgeois family at that time, especially through the square tower with widening, which ends in an exaggerated spire. In the main construction of the building, the 3 floors are separated by narrow strips of Art Nouveau tiling, which give the beautifully framed windows a distinction per floor and per facade surface.

The upper linked lowered pointed arch windows are divided into small colored glass surfaces via metal frames, allowing the sunlight to enter in a structured manner and in the most beautiful colors. Special are the dominant stone frames around the windows and the metal edges along the roofs that are reminiscent of oriental lacework.

The building stood on a plinth that connected to the ground level at the front via steps, but which has now been completely demolished to create more space around it. The decay and demolition work have left the building in the neglected and deplorable condition it is in at the moment.

The Graffiti:

Urban Artist Dário Silva from Olhão, signs his work as Sen. He started with graffiti at the age of 13. In the beginning, graffiti art was still illegal, but today many graffiti are legal and are authorized by the municipality or by the owners.

He also paints murals for commercial spaces to order and on canvas. He is setting up a Graffiti Museum on Rua do Caminho de Ferro in Olhão

In many of his compositions he combines lettering with figures reminiscent of animation. Other murals indicate a more realistic drawing, such as portraits. Usually in a big explosion of color.

Grafitti: @SEN
Photo 1:@Markus Lüske