Casa dos Bicos matters beyond its façade. A sixteenth-century journey, the collapse of 1755, a nineteenth-century warehouse, modern reconstruction and archaeology below ground together form its true identity today.
1521–1523 — After returning from Italy, Brás de Albuquerque built the house on riverfront land inherited from his father. The diamond-point façade brought Italian Renaissance language into Lisbon.
1755 — The earthquake and ensuing fires destroyed the main façade and upper two floors. What we see today is not an uninterrupted sixteenth-century house.
1772–19th century — The building was partly rebuilt and altered. For decades it served as a cod warehouse, moving a noble residence into the city's everyday trade.
1981–1983 — Lisbon's city government restored the lost floors from historic images and gave the building a new public role for a European exhibition of art, science and culture.
2012–today — The upper floors house the José Saramago Foundation. Archaeology below preserves Roman fish-processing tanks, old walls and remains from multiple ages of the city.
Standing here, what do you see?
In the square, pointed stones cut sunlight into a dense pattern of light and shade. Inside, Roman tanks, walls and an older shoreline emerge below glass walkways. The façade projects identity; the ground below opens time.
Li is brightness and also attachment. Light must attach to matter; civilization must attach to stone, remains, names and words if it is to cross destruction and forgetting and remain visible.
30Li · 30
Above · Li · Fire
Below · Li · Fire
Read the six lines from bottom to top ↑
Solid: yangBroken: yin
Zhou Yi · Commentary on the Image · Chinese excerpt
明两作，离。
Light rises again: Li. — Editorial translation of the excerpt
Two lights rise one after the other. Li suggests attachment: light needs something to rest on before it can illuminate its surroundings. When you see the light, notice also what keeps sustaining it.
Original text and context
This excerpt gives the natural image that opens the Commentary on the Image. The full passage relates it to personal conduct or governance in its historical context. Follow the source to read it in full. Applying it to buildings today is Xiaoxiong’s editorial proposal, not a summary of every meaning of the ancient text.
Return to this building · House of the Spikes
01
Light clings to the façade
The pointed stones are not a decorative trick. They bind light and shadow to the wall, give the house an urban identity and preserve an Italian journey in Lisbon.
02
Rebuild without pretending
The upper floors were reconstructed in the 1980s from old images. Acknowledging the break makes history clearer: continuity does not pretend destruction never happened.
03
Words give remains a voice
Archaeology reveals earlier urban life; the Saramago Foundation keeps words asking questions. Stone preserves the trace and literature returns it to public life.
Take a question to the bench
If civilization needs something to attach to in order to continue, what are we entrusting our memory to today?
A contemporary cultural interpretation by Xiaoxiong. The diagram and excerpt have a source; the building connection is editorial, not architectural intent, historical I Ching influence or the venue’s position.
Dining map records within three kilometres in a straight line of the reference point. Walls, railways and slopes may lengthen the journey. Check the entrance and whether the business is open.
The map may omit businesses. Records do not confirm trading status, menus or bookings. Records with an address are shown by default; you can include the others.
04 / The travellers’ Bench
Passing through? Leave a sentence.
If civilization needs something to attach to in order to continue, what are we entrusting our memory to today?
