With different expressions within the region as a result of the relationship of the population with the territory, the popular Algarve architecture has a very own originality. The decorated platband is alongside the chimney, one of its most unique elements.

The fascia is a horizontal element strike from the top of the house. Its main function is to allow the flow of rainwater collected by roof terraces. But in the Algarve combines the utility of the beautiful.

The platbands appear in a period of economic prosperity in the region (end of Century XIX and early twentieth century), printing the facades of mud houses or masonry very own nature. They are a unique and expressive form of ornamentation and embellishment of the house, that there function displays the new economic possibilities of its owner, as well as their inventive skills.

They reveal a happy relationship between the shape, colors (yellow ocher, cobalt blue, ocher or green) and represented motifs (lacy, flowery, reliefs, geometric, figurative).

Source: CIIPC