This seminar does not set out to propose any synthesis of housing around the time of the foundation of Portugal. This would indeed be very worthwhile. However, this would also be completely premature as the historiographic and archaeologic data on the theme remain so modest. Thus, we have broadly attempted to succinctly present what we know and what we would like to know about the house in the aforementioned period: proposing certain reflections on the habitational spaces, contextualizing the data available and underlining the complexity of the situations involved in this theme involves. Housing is here considered in its various manifestations: houses of the Gharb and of Christian Portugal, rural and urban homes, common dwellings and prestigious residences.

Biographical note
Manuel Sílvio Conde holds a degree in History from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, a Master’s degree in Medieval History from the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University and a PhD in History from the University of the Azores. He has completed post-doctoral studies at Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and taken the Aggregation exams at NOVA University.

He taught History in Secondary Education between 1978 and 1988, and was a lecturer in the Department of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at the University of the Azores from 1988 until his retirement in 2016. He has supervised master’s and doctoral theses and sat on master’s and doctoral examination juries at the universities of the Azores, Nova, Minho and the Higher Technical Institute. A researcher at the Institute of Medieval Studies at NOVA University, the Centre for Historical Studies and CHAM-Azores.

He wrote the books Tomar medieval. O espaço e os homens (1996), Horizontes do Portugal medieval. Ensaios históricos (1999); Uma paisagem humanizada. O Médio Tejo nos finais da Idade Média (2 volumes, 2000); O hospital medieval do Espírito Santo e a assistência caritativa portuguesa (2004); Construir, habitar: a casa medieval (2011). Co-editor (with Iria Gonçalves) of the Tombos da Ordem de Cristo, vol. 2 – Comendas do Médio Tejo (2005) and vol. IV – Comendas do Noroeste (2008); director of the Media Aetas journal (1st and 2nd series, since 1999). Coordinator (wirh Margarida Vaz do Rego Machado and Susana Serpa Silva) of the Percursos da História. Estudos In Memoriam de Fátima Sequeira Dias (2016), e (com Susana Serpa Silva) de História, pensamento e cultura. Estudos em homenagem a Carlos Cordeiro (2016).The author of numerous articles, he has collaborated in collective works and participated in national and international scientific meetings, addressing topics of urban history, urbanism and urban heritage, rural history, organisation of space and landscape, the history of construction and current housing, social history, fraternity and charitable assistance, and the history of everyday life.