One of Lisbon’s Last Palaces: The Palacete of the 4th Duke of Lafões at Anjos Street

The plan for the palace that the 4th Duke of Lafões, D. Caetano de Bragança (1856–1927), built in the vicinity of Anjos, in Lisbon, dates from 1914. The inscription of this house in the typology of a noble mansion, is due to its being a large single-family house, with a façade ennobled by the House of Lafões' coat-of-arms. It is a building planned in accordance with the Beaux-Arts style, with the main façade facing Anjos Street. The location of the building is one of its most interesting features, since, at this time, the area in which it stood was outside the noble city centre. The Dukes of Lafões were part of the former Titular Portuguese nobility, descendants from the kings of Portugal, with a family palace in Beato, where the 4th Duke was born. The reasons for the construction of the house in Anjos, far from the city centre, may relate to his family history. In 1904, D. Caetano married a Spanish lady, Leonor de Osete y del Alamo (1871–1921), who was already the mother of their seven children, the first of whom was born in 1893. Regardless, D. Caetano was certainly a curious figure of the traditional nobility, because, in addition to being a great estate owner, he was known as a
bullfighter, hunter and bohemian, and was very fond of fado.