Chalet Biester: A hidden gem in the Sintra Mountains

The Biester Palace, known as the “House of Witches” due to its black, sloping roofs, was built in the Sintra Mountains at the request of Frederico and Amélia Biester, a couple from important Portuguese families. It is believed to have been built in the late 19th century.

Just above the village, within sight, there is a mansion called Chalet Biester. Its black roof with turquoise trim raises many questions and arouses the curiosity of many visitors to Sintra. Chalet Biester has been open to the public since 2022 and can be visited every day of the week.

A unique example of romantic architecture, having been the residence of the Biester family.

The Chalet Biester, located on Estrada da Pena, visible to everyone passing through the village of Sintra and the top of Castelo dos Mouros, goes almost unnoticed by visitors. It dates back to 1890 and was designed by architect José Luís Monteiro, who was also responsible for other works, including the nave of Rossio Station.

Luigi Manini, an architect and painter who was living in Lisbon at the time, was chosen to design the interior of Chalet Biester. Luigi Manini used medieval decorations in the interior, combining them with flamboyant Gothic and the style of the time, a mixture from which the multicolored stained glass windows commissioned in France emerge, giving a classic color to the interior and also illuminating the furniture created by Leandro Braga, the woodcarver who also created pieces for the Ajuda Palace and the Belém Palace (official residence of the President of the Portuguese Republic).

The construction of this palace dates back to the last 20 years of the 19th century (1880-1899). The Biester Palace is a unique example of romantic architecture. It was the residence of the Biester family, who commissioned it from José Luiz Monteiro, a renowned architect in Brazil, who gave it a unique decoration and various artistic details, which were entrusted to master carver Leandro Braga and artists Luigi Manini and Paul Baudry.

The decorative details found in the Biester Palace are undoubtedly one of its greatest attractions for a longer visit. The most extraordinary thing is that the restoration of this palace has undergone very few changes in terms of its original architecture, as well as in the decoration and secular works that can be found there.

The Biester Couple

Amélia and Frederico Biester - drawings of their portraits, published in Diário Ilustrado in 1884 and 1889

The Biester couple, despite being distinguished individuals with a highly established social position, who also knew the importance of cultivating relationships within the intricacies of aristocratic circles, were above all discreet and tasteful people. Both Frederico and Amélia came from considerably wealthy families, particularly Amélia de Freitas Chamiço Biester, who, as is well known, was the daughter and niece of two of the great bankers of the second half of the 19th century, Fortunato Chamiço and Francisco Chamiço, who would go on to found Banco Totta and Banco Nacional Ultramarino, respectively. As a result, Frederico Biester, already a renowned and highly successful industrialist from a family with roots in Lisbon and ancestry in Lübeck, Germany, inherited responsibility for the Chamiço family's activities, taking charge of the administration of the productive cocoa and coffee plantations that the family owned in São Tomé and Príncipe, especially from 1888 onwards, when Francisco Chamiço died, leaving his widow Claudina de Freitas Guimarães Chamiço, who would play a leading role in the realization of her niece Amélia Biester's great dream—the sanatorium to help tuberculosis victims, to be built in Parede, Cascais.

Despite being involved in the management of one of the country's largest fortunes, the Biester couple are not known for any hint of haughtiness or arrogance, quite the contrary; from what is known, throughout their lives they have consistently helped others and supported charitable causes with great dedication, particularly in relation to victims of epidemics and disadvantaged children. Reiterating their more reserved behavior in relation to that of the aristocracy of the time, who were very expansive and given to the limelight, the Biesters seem to follow the example set by Francisco Chamiço, who had always refused the various honors, titles, and positions that were assiduously offered to him because of the economic development he brought to the country. In this way, we can characterize the Biester couple as wealthy and enterprising people, undoubtedly from the highest financial circle, but endowed with an admirable missionary spirit and a superior level of social consciousness that has rarely been found in the history of our country.

The Biester Family

The Biester family's story is tragic, marked by the death of the couple's only daughter at a young age and the subsequent deaths of the couple themselves, about a year apart. Their family history has been distorted over the decades, and each source provides different information. Most were victims of the tuberculosis pandemic that swept Portugal about 150 years ago, and the Biester couple were the driving force behind the creation of the former Sant'ana Sanatorium (an idea carried out after their death by their only heir, D. Claudina Chamiço). Even at the Biester Palace itself, information about the family is scarce. However, despite the passage of time, José Luiz Monteiro's beautiful architectural work remains, passed from owner to owner, with relatively recent renovations and, more recently, its opening to the public as part of Sintra's cultural heritage.

Throughout the Biester Park, visitors are surprised by the diversity of exotic flora found in this beautiful work of landscape architecture, as is so characteristic of other parks in Sintra, made possible by its well-known climatic conditions.

Fun Facts

The Chalet Biester was also the setting for part of Roman Polanski's film The Ninth Gate, in which the main character, played by Johnny Depp, takes on the name Dean Corso, who is a somewhat greedy expert - of rare books, who is hired by a millionaire (Boris Balkan) to find three copies of The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows, written in 1666 and supposedly written by Satan himself and a Venetian author named Aristide Torchia - possibly inspired by the life of Giordano Bruno. In Sintra, Dean Corso goes to the home of Victor Fargas, who owns a copy of The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows and lives like a decadent aristocrat. With no furniture left in Chalet Biester, he sells what remains of his extensive book collection to buy food and pay taxes. The film is an adaptation of the book The Club Dumas (1993) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.