The palace is rather difficult to find if you are driving from Lisbon to Benfica, because you need to cross the rail tracks and you need to know where to do that. I had to ask for directions several times. The last time I asked for directions, a guy drew the directions, and that’s how we finally made it to the palace. However, it is definitely a place you don’t want to miss. The palace is a private residence and is open only for 2 guided visits a day. Behind the iron fence is the palace of red color with white columns supporting porticos of the 1st and 2nd floors. The middle of the façade is covered with azulejos on both floors.

The lady who gave the tour was English and she would give the tour in both English and Portuguese. She told us about the décor of the palace and the gardens.

The palace was built in the 17th century as a hunting lodge, then in the 18th century several room were added. You enter through the large staircase lined with azulejos and go up to a large hall with frescoes of Hercules on the ceiling. The palace was not destroyed by the earthquake, and the marquis and his family moved here after the earthquake. His family still lives here.

You can see portraits of marquis’ predecessors on the walls. The most impressive room in the palace is the Battle room that has walls covered with azulejos which show battle scenes at Evora during 1663 – you can see Spanish and Portuguese troops and the marquis on the horse fighting the battle. The beautiful ceiling with plaster reliefs and medallion in the center showing victory was restored in 1950. This room is now rented for receptions and meetings. There are also the dining room with Dutch 17th century tiles and maritime scenes on the ceiling, the Juno room with Juno fresco in the middle of the ceiling. All the rooms have 18th century antiques.

The most interesting part of the estate however is the terrace covered in azulejos, with statues of astronomy, rhetorics, dialectics, music, poetry, arithmetics and mythological figures of Apollo, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and Diana. Down the steps from the terrace is a beautiful chapel decorated with mosaic from porcelain dishes that the king ate from (since it could not be used again, it was broken into pieces and forms the mosaic). Along the royal gallery with busts of kings in niches you get to the amazing gardens with small pond and manicured trees and bushes surrounding the statues of Roman gods on several corners.