Resources on Villas in Portugal

Luxury Villas in Portugal for Sale

Your Dream Villa

For sure it is a beautifully designed home with many impressive and unique attributes. It should embody the inside/outside living style of the Caribbean with its own tropical lush gardens filled with palm trees, hibiscus and wild orchids -- in addition, a private water front dock, with steps to the sea, surrounded by powder white beach sand. The villa has three to five master bedrooms and one or two junior bedrooms, all with facilites en suite. There are two spectacular swimming pools--one on grade made of stone, one elevated and secluded. All master bedrooms have spectacular views of the Caribbean Sea--as do the living areas, outside verandas and master kitchen. In addition, the property has its own tennis court and stand alone car garage, wherby the entire estate is built on minimum one acre of land, all enclosed by beautiful stone walls.

This is a dream - isn't it?

Villas

A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class. According to Pliny the Elder, there were two kinds of villas, the villa urbana, which was a country seat that could easily be reached from Rome (or another city) for a night or two, and the villa rustica, the farm-house estate, permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would center on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied. There were a concentration of Imperial villas near the Bay of Naples, especially on the Isle of Capri, at Monte Circeo on the coast and at Antium (Anzio). Wealthy Romans escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Frascati (cf Hadrian's Villa). Cicero is said to have possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near Arpinum, which he inherited. Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions.

Renaissance villas
In 14th and 15th century Italy, a 'villa' once more connoted a country house, sometimes the family seat of power like Villa Caprarola, more often designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city. The first examples of Renaissance Villa dates back to the age of Lorenzo de' Medici, and they are mostly located in the Italian region of Tuscany (the "Medici villas") such as the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo (begun in 1470) or the Villa Medici in Fiesole (since 1450), probably the first villa created under the instructions of Leon Battista Alberti, who theorized in his De re aedificatoria the features of the new idea of villa. From Tuscany the idea of villa was spread again through Italy and Europe.

Excerpt of "Villa." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 Oct 2006, 16:21 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Oct 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Villa&oldid=82831165

Image from "Image:Villa_Medici_a_Fiesole_1.jpg" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Oct 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Villa_Medici_a_Fiesole_1.jpg

Portugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa; [...]) is located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and is the westernmost country of mainland Europe. Portugal is bordered by Spain to the north and east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, are also part of Portugal.
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Geography and Climate
Continental Portugal is split in two by its main river, the Tagus (Tejo). Northern landscape is mountainous in the interior areas, with plateaus indented by river valleys that allow the development of relevant agricultural areas. The South area between the Tejo and the Algarve (the Alentejo) features mostly rolling plains with a climate somewhat warmer and drier than the cooler and rainier north. The Algarve, separated from the Alentejo by mountains, enjoys a Mediterranean climate comparable with Morocco or Southern Spain.

The islands of the Azores and Madeira are located in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Some of these islands have had recent volcanic activity, as recently as 1957. Portugal's highest point is Mount Pico in Pico Island, an ancient volcano, at 2,351 metres (7,713 ft).

Portugal's climate can be classified as Mediterranean in the south and Oceanic in the north. One of the warmest European countries, yearly temperature averages in Mainland Portugal are 13 °C (55 °F) in the north and 18 °C (64 °F) in the south. Madeira and Azores archipelagos have a narrower temperature range. Spring and Summer months are sunny, Autumn and Winter are rainy and windy.

Excerpt from "Portugal." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 29 Oct 2006, 12:47 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 31 Oct 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portugal&oldid=84411957