Casa dos Ferrazes Bravos;Casa dos Maias

Casa dos Ferrazes Bravos, also known as Casa dos Maias, stands on Rua das Flores in Porto’s historic centre. This noble house rises through a ground floor, mezzanine, and upper noble floor above a Baroque façade. Eight large windows carry triangular pediments and wrought-iron balconies across the main elevation. Below them, two mezzanine windows sit partly behind granite coats of arms belonging to the Bravo and Ferraz families.

Martim Ferraz built the house in the sixteenth century, and the Bravo family later inherited it through marriage. An eighteenth-century remodelling gave the earlier structure its present Baroque appearance, including volutes, scrollwork, and granite corbels. Inside, a broad granite staircase uses two side flights and one central flight, supported by six columns. The U-shaped plan encloses a granite-paved courtyard, where a former fountain retains its basin and dolphin spout.

A small octagonal chapel once occupied that courtyard, with gilded woodwork attributed to Nicolau Nasoni. Later, the chapel moved to the Quinta do Vale de Abraão in Lamego, while the façade kept its carved heraldic stones. Rua das Flores remains lined with shops, cafés, and hotels, continuing a street tradition shaped by noble homes and goldsmiths.