About Us

History of the Building

At the beginning of the 19th century, more precisely in the 1930s, the prior of S. Pedro da Vila de Óbidos, António Gonçalves de Asseca, acquired Casas da Calçada next to Chafariz Novo, with the main objective of founding a nunnery. The work, financed by King D. Miguel, began the following year, with the chapel completed in 1833, with the invocation of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

In 1834, with the Portuguese Liberal Revolution, religious orders were extinguished throughout the national territory and, consequently, their assets were incorporated into the National Treasury. From that moment on, the convent building was abandoned until it was acquired by a succession of owners.

Firstly, by the family of Acácio Costa, later by the Bénard Guedes and finally, in 1965, by a French couple named Balivet, who had the initiative to transform the building into an inn, incorporating it into the network of inns from Portugal. At the beginning of the 80s, the Garcia family, still owners of the building, decided to invest in this project and their mentor, Luís Garcia, chose to develop a charming hotel called Estalagem do Convento.

Meanwhile, in 2015 and following the creation of the Óbidos Vila Literária project, The Literary Man was born, the largest literary hotel in the world, mainly due to its book collection that approaches the fantastic number of around 100,000 units. This hotel space, currently in the hands of Marta Garcia, one of Luís Garcia's children, offers a unique experience in terms of hospitality.

The Literary Man Óbidos Hotel, retains the memory of its conventual origin, remaining in the organic nature of its space, where you can find and walk through the so-called “Corredor das Celas” which houses eight rooms, numbered from 10 to 18 and the unique atmosphere of the theme. literary, existing in general throughout the physical space of the Hotel.

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