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

Thomas Hallauer (2 years ago)
We went on a Saturday and only the garden was open. Until 1:30 pm. Would have been a great place to visit with context but the ticket did not include any info. Overall very kitch/messed up/broken

Ricardo Rezk (2 years ago)
This private palace is open to the public through guided tours only. Today (2/23/19) they only offered tours at 11am and 12pm. I got there at 10:55am, on time for the first group. Tours today were given in Portuguese, French and English. I did the tour in Portuguese; the fact that we were only 4 people in the Portuguese group made it feel very private, which is great in a house still inhabited by its owners. Tour guides are very knowledgeable. The outdoors are very nice too. If you come all the way here, do the tour inside the house.

Ilse Hamming (2 years ago)
What a beautiful garden! For me the prettiest place seen in Lisbon

Wojciech Nagrodzki (3 years ago)
Charming residence. The guide (a lovely British lady) shared a bit of history of this noble family, showed us around and left us craving even more of the stories. The place was being renovated the time I visited, nevertheless I really recommend it, it is going to be beautiful once restored.

Maja Bakarić (3 years ago)
Incredible place! You can either buy a ticket just for the garden, which is amazing, or a combo with a guided tour (in English or Portuguese) for the palace. Tours are not scheduled on every hour so try to find out when they are, we had two hours to spare, but we explored the garden at that time, even set there for half an hour and rest. Garden is definitely a must see, palace is much more modest compared to it, but out tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave us plenty of information and details.

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