Casa dos Bicos is a hard-to-miss structure at the heart of the picturesque Alfama and one of the very few buildings in Lisbon that survived the 1755 earthquake. It owes its name, which means House of Spikes, to its idiosyncratic facade with the 1125 diamond-shaped stones that look like thorns. Casa dos Bicos was constructed in the 16th century for the illegitimate son of the King, the Portuguese Viceroy of India Brás de Albuquerque. With evident Renaissance influences and resemblance to the architecture of Venetian palazzos, Casa dos Bicos beautifully incorporates the local Manueline idiom, a Portuguese variation of the late Gothic style.