Restoration of Siolim House
A Note from the Owner
350 years of history. At one time the house belonged to a governor of Macau from an aristocratic family, and still has the porcelain china grills that the senhor brought from the east. Later on other members of the family were administrators in Portuguese Mozambique, which is where its other name ‘Mosmimcar’, ‘The Mozambican’, comes from. The house was bought by its present owners in 1996 and the first renovation completed in 1999.
At the time the house was in very poor condition, and we began restoration with a view to restore to a home. After a sensitive restoration over three years, without sparing any detail, from its lime plaster to its patterned floor tiles, the house was lovingly brought back. We realised that in order to the house to continue for the next 300 years it would have to be lived in and so decided to put her to use first as a villa for rent during the time we were not there and then due to the size as very few groups were able to rent it, it grew into a ‘non-hotel’ boutique hotel. As the restoration was done to retain its structure as private home, we were therefore very generous in our use of space. In a building that had twenty four rooms there are today only seven suites and seven bathrooms. No necessity was felt to cram rooms in, and so we have spacious public areas and rooms, very unlike a Goa hotel! We somehow scraped the money together and used my salary to finance the work. The house is still very much that today – just a house with a website, which never intended to be or will become a hotel with all that hotels stand for. I am in Goa about a week a month, and enjoy the hospitality of our charming staff, as I am travelling otherwise for my day job. You can contact me if you like through varunspers@gmail.com .
