Old architecture in Satão, Northern Portugal

[Pecole]

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There are quite a few interesting pieces of - old - architecture in Satâo, a small city in mountainous North Portugal (Viseu district). Several of them have been preserved and internally renewed by local authorities. Here are two good examples : the entrance of the town library, and the police headquarters (GNR, the only - fortunately - visible sign meaning "Guarda Nacional Republicana" or Republican National Guard).

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[Shane Guthrie]

Thanks Pecole 

 

I like the perspective in the first one, along with the two splashes of red and the contrasting crosses either side of the stairs. 

 

The door looks very small, and I imagine that's because of the perspective. However, in Lisbon, I found several small doors that only children could walk through comfortably, particularly where the street was on a sharp incline. 

[Pecole]

Thanks Pecole 

 

I like the perspective in the first one, along with the two splashes of red and the contrasting crosses either side of the stairs. 

 

The door looks very small, and I imagine that's because of the perspective. However, in Lisbon, I found several small doors that only children could walk through comfortably, particularly where the street was on a sharp incline. 

 

Thanks, Shane. The library's door is not "small" : normal 1.90 m. high. The explanation of low doors is twin : first, the average height of Portuguese people was limited to 1.61 m. until the mid-fifties (it is now within the South-European averages of about 1.71 m.), second, when the street is in sharp decline, the soil of the house - especially if an old one - may be aligned with the lower part, and if the door is in the middle, its height is limited by the ceiling of the room.