Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira, Lisbon, Portugal

The Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira was built in 1671 as a hunting pavilion to Dom João de Mascarenhas, 1st Marquis of Fronteira, who received his title from King Afonso VI of Portugal for his loyalty to the House of Braganza in the Portuguese Restoration War.

The house and the garden have glazed tiles representing different themes such as battles or monkeys playing trumpets. The Room of the Battles has panels representing scenes of the Portuguese Restoration War; one of them shows D. João de Mascarenhas fighting a Spanish general. The dining room is decorated with portraits representing some members of the Portuguese nobility, painted by artists such as Domingos António de Sequeira.

The chapel, dating from the end of the 16th century, is the oldest part of the palace. The façade is adorned with stones, shells, broken glass and porcelains. It seems that those pieces were used during the palace’s inauguration and were broken on purpose just not to be used again.

In spite of being the current residence of the Marquis of Fronteira some of the rooms, the library and the garden are open to public visits.

The palace garden, an area of 5,5 hectare, is adorned with Portuguese tiles with pictures that represent the different arts as well as mythological figures. The garden hedges are cut in order to represent the different year seasons. There is also a stone staircase which leads to a wall line with busts of the Kings of Portugal.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Simon Sa (2 years ago)
Nice place but was not really worth the entry to our opinion. We paid 5€ but you are pretty much done with everything after 10-15 minutes. Would just rate it as average!!

catarina campos costa (2 years ago)
Such a hidden jewel! Really worth the detour for a couple of hours wandering through these beautiful gardens, which are really well taken care of. Definitely a nice place to relax. You can also take a guided tour to check the interior of the Palace. On the down side, it is really a shame the tiles and statues aren't so well preserved. They could really use some cleaning so the bright colours could pop up even more.

Rodrigo Vargas (2 years ago)
Incredible palace. Great tiles and garden.

Olivier Odelin (2 years ago)
One of the true pure marvels of this world...

Micaela Almeida (2 years ago)
Beautiful palace gardens. I went here during times.of Vivid so I was only allowed to visit the gardens. The gardens are beautiful and perfect for a relaxed walk with a friend, chatting about life. There was no queue and there were very few people when I went. The tiles are really beautiful and I especially loved the stone table they have under a tree pergola!

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