Property || The 19th century mausoleum of one of Portugal’s romantic poets has at last changed hands after almost eight years on the market.
The coup – for Moncarapacho-based Russell & Decoz estate agents – seems to have followed some imaginative sales pitching.
The company featured the property as “the ultimate destination for your family and friends”, “available with vacant possession. Sleeps 12. A wonderful chance to get away from it all!”
Punters unaware that they would have to be dead to take full advantage of the offer got in touch to find out if they really could live in the property “in a central position within Porto city graveyard”.
“Of course they couldn’t!” a spokesperson for the agents told us this week as the property was also featured in news stories.
Nor could they open a tea-shop or business, as those interested in possible change-of-use were told over the years.
As Russell & Decoz quipped at the end of its blurb “about the property”: “If you are looking for a situation with a bit more life, we do have some super new apartments for sale…”
But for now, the mausoleum built at the turn of the last century for aristocratic and local poet António Nobre has at last found new owners.
It has been bought by a Portuguese family, we were told. And it will be used for the purpose for which it was originally intended – as Nobre’s body was removed almost 70 years ago to a cemetery in Matosinhos.
By NATASHA DONN
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