Known as the House of Spikes, this palace was originally built in the early 16th century by Afonso de Albuquerque, the Viceroy to India. His son Braz, who thought the façade rather ordinary, added the pointed stone cladding from which the building derives its popular name. He also endowed the upper two floors with arched windows. Thought to have been modelled on an Italian palace, it was one of the few buildings to survive the 1755 earthquake, although the top two floors were destroyed and were only rebuilt in 1983. It is an interesting architectural curiosity.