A bizarre stone house built between four granite boulders, conceived of by a couple in the 1970s as a unique mountain getaway, has earned a fanbase for its weird, intriguing features.
Casa do Penedo, meaning “house of stone,” is located at 2,600 feet of elevation in the Fafe Mountains of Serra da Lameira, Portugal. It was conceived by Leonel and Maria José Rodrigues in the spring of 1973 and finished in October 1974. Leonel, a textile engineer, and Maria, a homemaker, had three children together and raised them in the city of Guimarães.
“Casa do Penedo was, and still is, our vacation home in the mountains,” the couple’s son, 55-year-old Vitor Rodrigues, told The Epoch Times. “It was made to be discreet and integrated into nature. It was made to not have any technology. ... The house remains original, without a telephone, television, and electricity. But it has water and gas.”
Vitor said the construction began with the roof, which is supported by four large boulders. On the first floor, there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. On the ground floor, there is a dining room, a living room, and a kitchen with a gas stove. The home is heated by fireplaces.
The site even has an open-air swimming pool carved out of another large rock near the house.
“In the construction of the house, common materials were used: bricks and cement, and tiles on the roof,” Vitor said. “The coating is made of small granite stones harvested on site. The interior is entirely made of wood. The four granite boulders were already there, just like that. [They] may have been dragged into place during the last Ice Age.
Vitor says the house was built in that location for two main reasons: “It is far from civilization and because it is quiet.
“In this place we are free! Free of technology, free of other interference with civilization. ... It also has stunning views.”
The position of the stone house in the mountains affords visitors incredible views of the surrounding area, including Fafe and many other cities, and Alvão Natural Park. Vitor insists that, despite Casa do Penedo’s growing fame, the house is not a museum. It remains a cherished vacation home owned by the Rodrigues family, now in the third generation.
The stone house has earned itself the nickname “the real-life Flintstones house” from the media owing to its primitive appearance. It has even been featured in a Portuguese film and a 2018 cell phone advertisement. The Rodrigues family, who speak Portuguese, English, French, and Spanish, now love organizing guided tours to the unique house.
Vitor said: “From 2014, when the house was considered to be the strangest building in the world and was reported in a London newspaper, interest in its architecture increased. We noticed that there was a great deal of interest in seeing the house. We had visits from people from all over the world, so we organized guided tours. ... We usually receive visits from families, groups organized by appointment, and others who also appear spontaneously.”
People love the house, Vitor said, adding that “the funniest reactions are those of the Italians; when they enter the house they say, ‘Mama mia!’”
