: Sisters Turn 300-YO Ancestral Goan Home into Hotel Using Repurposed Ship Wood #IndiaNEWS #Architecture Anjuna in Goa is famous for its beaches and nightlife, with tourists thronging the area through

Sisters Turn 300-YO Ancestral Goan Home into Hotel Using Repurposed Ship Wood #IndiaNEWS #Architecture
Anjuna in Goa is famous for its beaches and nightlife, with tourists thronging the area through the year. And in the heart of this place is a 300-year-old heritage property that seems to dim the cacophony around with its majestic facade.

Once home to a Goan couple, Antonio Souza and Marie Antoinette, the 35,000 sq ft space has now taken on the avatar of a luxury boutique hotel.

This transformation owes itself to Kezya de Bragança — a professional in the real estate industry and director of Riviera Constructions. While Kezya has headed multiple design and construction projects, working on a heritage home belonging to her paternal grandaunt, Marie Antoinette, was a “unique experience???.

Today, ‘MansionHaus’ offers solace to anyone who visits Anjuna and has a beguiling story to tell anyone who will listen.

A Goan home is interwoven with Portuguese style

MansionHaus is a boutique hotel in Goa filled with Portuguese architecture, Picture credits: Kezya

A white beauty against the backdrop of the setting sun, MansionHaus has been known for setting trends even in the past.

“Traditional Goan homes were usually painted in bright colours like yellow, blue, peach etc using vegetables and natural dyes. Because back in the day, only churches and religious places were allowed to be painted white, as the colour symbolised purity,??? Kezya recounts. However, this heritage home with its white facade sidestepped this notion.

The ancient gothic-style home was one among the many ancestral properties that dotted the landscape of Goa, its air filled with chatter and the aroma of meats being cooked.

But, Kezya says after her aunt Marie Antoinette passed away, the space fell silent. It lay unoccupied for around five years and fell prey to unforgiving weather coupled with vandalism.

“We thought of reviving it,??? says Kezya, who spearheaded the restoration project along with her sister Kathya de Bragança and the experts at Riviera Constructions. What started out as a ‘weekend project’ in August 2017 was christened three years later as MansionHaus.

The sister duo share that the transformation was a slippery slope to navigate.

The dining area in MansionHaus is a luxury one and sees baroque-style architecture, Picture credits: Kezya

When they began ideating, they noticed that there were certain aspects — the askew roof, irregularly cut mother-of-pearl shells, patchy lime plastering, and unsymmetrical mouldings — that were imperfect, but also lent the home a distinct character.

“To add to this, everything in the home was handmade and handcrafted — from the cutting of the stones to the making of furniture.