From the house of Faria Gaios to the Crest Inn Estalagem do Brasão

PCirca 1500, there lived in Rua da Lage (Lage Street (1), in this town, a knight, João Martins Gaio, married to Maria Afonso da Maia (2), from the Household of the Mendes da Maia of Guilhabreu, related to the principal families of the kingdom, among them, that of the Farias, which offered two gentlemen to Da Gama, for his trip to India, Francisco and Pedro de Faria, who were lost off the coast of Mozambique and whom Luís de Camões celebrated in the “Lusiads”.

João Martins Gaio, had, from his marriage, a son, António Martins Gaio, gentleman-knight by command of King João III whom, by marrying Maria Felgueira, of Vila do Conde, created the Estate of Fervença, with seat in Vila do Conde, to it adjoining his lands of Gilmonde (Barcelos), the Chapel of the Mother of God, in Póvoa de Varzim and the lands of Rio Mau (Vila do Conde) (3). It was this António Gaio, captain-major of Vila do Conde and father to a numerous offspring who linked himself to the most distinguished families in the Kingdom. His body lays in the Matriz, the main church of Vila do Conde along side his wife and brother-in-law, in the Chapel of Our Lady of Angels, which he had built at his own expense (4). A descendant of António Gaio, Filipa Martins Gaio, married Pedro Affonso de Leça Carneiro, from the illustrious family of the Carneiro’s of Vila do Conde, Masters of the Chapel of S. Bento. From their marriage was born D. João Ribeiro Gaio, Bishop of Malacca and Archbishop of Goa, author of numerous works, among them a “logbook of the coast of Achem” and Estácia Maria de Oliveira Gaio, who was married to a nobleman of the Faria Household.

In the late 17th century, a relative of Estácia, Maria de Oliveira Gaio, who had her manor house at the Rua das Donas, married one of her daughters, Angela da Costa, to Francisco de Couto Azevedo, from the Alpedrinha household. Angela and her husband had built in the Rua de S. Bento (S. Bento street), the House of Vinhal, where today the Bobbin lace Museum is situated. Whether to be close to her relation, or by any other reasons, Estácia Maria Gaio, by the occasion of her grand-daughters’ marriage, Eulália de Faria Gaio, to António da Rocha Pereira, a descendant of Rodrigo Pereira, Lord of the House and Tower of Pereira, in the lands of Faria, erected the Casa Grande (Big House), in the Rua de S. Bento. It was this Rocha Pereira who had the Casa Grande enlarged and placed on it a new coat of arms. Once Rocha Pereira was dead, the house was inherited by his son Mateus da Rocha Pereira de Faria Gaio, captain-major of Vila do Conde, already master, via his grandmothers’ legacy, of the Estate of Fervença, of the House and Chapel of the Mother of God in Póvoa de Varzim and of other lands.
From the marriage of Mateus Gaio to Violante Veloso, from the noble household of Venda Velha de Candoso, Vila Flor, was born Bento da Rocha Pereira de Faria Gaio, who rendered relevant services in the City Hall of Vila do Conde and nominated heiress of the Casa Grande his grand-daughter Maria Cristina Pereira Gaio, who was twice wed. The first one, to a close relative of hers, Manuel de Magalhães de Araújo Pimentel, from the household of Gandarela, Basto (5) and to whom she bore a son, Lourenço de Magalhães Araújo Pimentel (6). From her second marriage, also to a relation, Francisco de Noronha e Menezes, Lord of the House and Estate of Prelada, in Ramalde, in the city of Oporto, Cristina, had no children.

In 1882, there came to live in Lisbon, a rich merchant from Brazil, born in the village of Macieira (which means appletree), in Vila do Conde, named Joaquim da Silva, “legally separated” and who, once made a commander (a knight like title), added the name of his native village to his own. It was this merchant who bought, in the 27th of July of 1882, for 4.500$00, the “Casa Grande”, together with the “casa da nora” and other adjacent houses, “all rented to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of this town”.
Joaquim da Silva Macieira, as soon as he entered in to possession of the house, by imposition of D. Cristina, had her coat of arms put down. But, given that he was commander, he decided to put up his own. In these matters, as in so many others, what really mattered was the money; he had no lack of sculptors for his crest. So, those who insist on calling the “Casa Grande” the manor of the appletrees (Macieiras) do have a certain point.

Ten years later and after several constructions and alteration of the interiors – the box ceilings were replaced by others in “alfarge” , with the exception of those of the patio and that of one of the rooms on the ground floor – Joaquim da Silva dies and bequeaths the “Casa Grande” (or Big House) to the Junta de Freguesia de Macieira (the local administration of his native village). But the Junta could not endure the burden of such legacy. So and with the acquiescence of the City Hall, the house goes to auction and is sold by 4.500$00 to the, then, clerk of the Jurors Court of Vila do Conde, Joaquim João Francisco Praça, the “Garrista” (the strong one), married to Leocádia Flausina da Conceição Praça. By his death the “Casa Grande” passed on, by usufruct to his descendants and the property to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Vila do Conde and Asylum of the Venerable Third Order of St. Francis of Vila do Conde which, by mutual consent, sold it in auction to Celestino Fernandes Ramalho and Joaquim Dias Maia, two well known local capitalists who, in turn, sold it to Aires Fernandes Ramalho, proprietor and capitalist, also from Vila do Conde, who had installed in it, after complete and careful restoration, the luxurious inn he named “Estalagem do Brasão” (Crest Inn).

The crest of the “Casa Grande”, according to the paintings on the back of a few benches which belonged to the house and are kept in the City Hall, had by emblem (indicative of the degree of Nobility), the Tower of the Farias and in the first quarter the arms of the Gaios; in the second, those of the Pereiras; in the third, the ones of the Farias and in the fourth, that of the Rochas’.
Before the latest restoration, the “Casa Grande” had many functions; the Municipal Services were installed there, the High School Institute, the First Grade School, the Firemen and even some private individualities. By the time it was sold by the Misericórdia and the Asylum, it was rented to the City Hall, who occupied it with some of its warehouses.
Dating the last restoration from 2002, the Estalagem do Brasão (Crest Inn) continues to uphold the tradition and prestige of dozens of decades, honoring its customers with the c
ourtesy and tradition of the services it provides them.
Notes:

1- Rua da Lage (or Lage Street) is nowadays the Rua da Igreja (or Church Street), but only from the house of the Abbot Sousa Maia Library and the Rua da Costa (Costa Street) or that of St. Peter’s.

2- Maria Affonso da Maia and her husband are buried in the Matriz of Vila do Conde, in the Arch of Cruzeiro, “Parochial Memory of Pryor Luyz da Silva”.

3- In the “Parochial Memories” of Rio Mau, in 1732, Luís de Magalhães appears as Lord of Fervença.

4- António Martins Gaio and his wife are, as we mentioned, buried at the Chapel of Our Lady of Angels, along with their brother-in-law Vicente Felgueira. Brites Felgueira and Vicente Felgueira, parents-in-law to António Gaio, are not, as Monsignor Ferreira wrote, along side their son-in-law, but at the Cruzeiro of the Matriz, in a grave ornamented with their coat of arms and where it can be read “Vicente Folgr.ª e Britis Folgr.ª sua Mer. According to the cited “Parochial Memory”.

5- One of the houses of Manuel Magalhães, was later the “Casa da Roda de Vila do Conde” (house where single mothers left their unwanted children for the nuns to take care of);

6- The late and distinguished lineagist Counselor Carcavelos was mistaken when he wrote that Cristina had died childless. In the deed of sale of the building, it reads that, in that occasion, was present Lourenço de Magalhães de Araújo Pimentel, “son of the first granter, who comes to ratify this deed”. Book of Notes N.187, Clerk Fernandes da Silva.