Casa do Penedo: A Casa Mais Estranha do Mundo

Casa do Penedo (Penedo House) is located in the mountains that decorate the view of Braga and Guimarães: in the Fafe Mountains (coordinates: 41.488108, -8.067740). This consists of a small house, built between a set of boulders. It was built with the purpose of being a discreet place to enjoy family holidays, but its atypical construction led to its fame, attracting many curious visitors. So, taking advantage of the attention received and the impossibility of spending holidays in this house because of the large number of visitors, the family decided to make visits available.

The Penedo house is considered the strangest house in the world

A casa do Penedo, inaugurada em 1974, é considerada a Casa Mais Estranha do Mundo. A ideia para a sua construção teve origem num passeio em família nas Serras de Fafe, quando uma família olhou para quatro penedos e imaginou uma casa construída entre eles, utilizando os penedos como paredes laterais.

The family's goal was to have a place to spend the weekends, quiet and away from the hustle. However, as a result of its unique style, it became a tourist attraction. And so, the house receives a large number of visitors.

A casa está construída a partir do telhado e mantém ainda a delimitação original, assim como os móveis de origem e não tendo ainda instalação elétrica. A casa está atualmente cercada por uma rede. Assim sendo, nós recomendamos que procurem informarem-se sobre o horário de visita.

Visiting the Penedo House

To visit the house you can book through the website (here.), which also contains the timetable. Eventually, you may have the same luck as us, who managed to visit the house after 7pm, as there was a great influx of visitors that day.

The visit has a cost of 2€, if it is only to the outside of the house, or 5€, if it also includes a guided tour inside and outside the house.

The exterior of the house includes the main house, a swimming pool and “Casa do Forno” (Oven House).

The latter consists of a house built in stone and located further on the edge of the property. Regarding the interior of the Penedo House house, and despite appearing to be small, is well composed.

A casa tem dois andares, compostos por uma cozinha, uma sala e uma casa de banho, assim como três quartos. Como resultado da sua construção, no interior da casa é ainda extremamente interessante visualizar os penedos a moldar as paredes. Não é permitido tirar fotografias ao interior da casa.

how to get there and where to park

Finding Casa do Penedo is, with new technologies, a very simple task. Google Maps itself already recognizes its location (coordinates: 41.488182, -8.067788) and is also able to indicate the best route, being about 22 minutes (13.2km) from the center of Fafe and located near Guimarães.

The way to the house, which can be done through two different roads, is on dirt roads. An interesting curiosity is that rally competitions are held on these roads, giving rise to its name, Rally of Portugal Street.

Casa do Penedo is therefore a mandatory stop for anyone visiting the region. The house, built by man, appears to have been shaped by nature and the surrounding landscape that frames it as perfectly as if it were a painting.

Update (2022): In the summer of 2022 we had the opportunity to take some family members to discover this place that we love so much.

The guided tour was equally enjoyable and the landscape is still breathtaking. There was only one small change: since our previous visit, Casa do Forno has been converted into a bathroom.

Needless to say, the people who went there with us were completely in love.