Travels in Portugal-The best of Lisbon: Part Four

Phone: 351 21 435 00 39
Open: Wed-Mon, 10am–5pm; closed Tuesdays, Jan 1, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, May 1, June 29, Dec 25
Free on Sundays 10am–noon
Entrance fee: 3 euros

You can get to the palace by train or car. We chose car, as the palace is a short drive out of Lisbon. When you approach it, you see a pink-colored palace and a pousada of the same color across the road from it. The 18th-century palace, built mainly by French architect Robillon, has gorgeous, French-style, well-maintained gardens, with boxwood bushes shaped in squares and pyramids and statues of goddesses. You can see it from the windows in the palace as you are visiting; then you can walk through the gardens and see a pink façade, which continues in yellow as a separate building. Some rooms have brick floors, and some have hardwood floors. The whole palace is decorated in the Rococo style. Some of the rooms in the palace are the most interesting. For example, the gorgeous Throne Room has gilded flower décor and frescoes on the ceiling and walls, mirrored doors, and huge crystal chandeliers. The ceiling has an interesting shape, as if two smaller chapels are connected by a large one. There is also the Music Chamber, with beautiful Rococo gilding on the ceiling, several musical instruments, and a portrait of Queen Maria I. The palace also has a gorgeous chapel, with tromp l’oeil’ed walls made to look like red and green marble, gilded Rococo woodwork, and several paintings on the walls. Across from the altar is a large balcony. On the ceiling, there is a large fresco by Oliveira, as well as paintings by Nuno Goncalves of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Francis and the virgin. There is also the Azulejos Room, which is covered in azulejos, top to bottom, and the Ambassador’s Room, designed by Roubillon in 1757-62, with two thrones on a platform and a ceiling covered in frescoes, showing men of politics and muses. One of the rooms in the palace is Don Quixote Room, with inlaid wood floors and frescoes showing scenes from the book. When you exit the palace, you walk down the staircase guarded by stone lions into the gardens. The gardens are well-maintained and have a magnificent azulejo-lined canal, which at the time had no water flowing through it.

Phone: (351) 213912800
Website: www.mnarteantiga-ipmuseus.pt
Email: mnarteantiga@ipmuseus.pt
Open: Tues, 2pm–6pm; Wed-Sun, 10am–6pm; closed Mondays, Easter Sunday, May 1, Dec 25, Jan 1
Prices: Adults, 3 euros; under 25 years of age, 1.50 euros
Free on Sundays and holidays until 2pm
Photos without flash are allowed

From Praca Comercio, we took tram 15 minutes to the museum, and up a steep flight of stairs, there we were, in front of a yellow building with a sign and white urns on the side of the entrance staircase. The Museum of Ancient Art has a large collection that spans three floors of the Alvor-Pombal Palace and one floor of the adjacent, more modern building, built in 1940s.

On the ground floor, you can see St. Albert’s chapel (16th-18th century), in gilded Baroque with azulejos retables, which is very beautiful. This is all that is left of the monastery that was on this spot and was destroyed by the earthquake of 1755.

On the first floor, there is a very large collection of various Oriental screens, tapestries, Chinese vases, Portuguese ceramics, religious relics, and Portuguese silver and furniture. The remainder of the floor is connected to the old palace by a bookshop. The first floor has a large collection of European paintings from the 14-19th centuries, including works by such masters as Bosch ("The Temptations of St Anthony"), Memling, Durer ("St Jerome"), Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Zurbaran, Velazquez, Poussin, and Courbet. The second and third floors have a great collection of Portuguese art from a lot of churches in Portugal. This is the largest collection of early Portuguese religious paintings, and includes a 15th-century polyptych, "Adoration of St Vincent" by Nuno Goncalves, which is the most important painting of that time Portugal. Here you can also see lots of paintings and wooden sculptures of various saints, Madonna, and Christ.

Phone: 351 21 910 6840
Open: Tue-Thurs, 10am–5:30pm; closed Wednesdays
Free on Sundays, 10am–1pm
No pictures allowed

If you are in Lisbon, you have to visit nearby Sintra, with an unforgettable Palace of Sintra. The palace’s façade, with Manueline arches and bottle-like chimneys, is very distinctive, and you can’t possibly miss it. The palace is on the hill, and the parking in front of the palace is very small, so you may have to park in the street, and finding a spot is a challenge. You may have to walk a good distance from your car. You can also come to Sintra by train – exit at the station "Sintra" on the Sintra line.

The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage site. After standing in line to get up the stairs along the green tiled staircase, you finally get into the palace, and you understand why. The palace was built in the 14th century and is the only palace in all of Portugal remaining from the Middle Ages. You can still see the rooms on the top floor from the 14th century, which were once occupied by King Dinis. During the reign of King Joao I (late 14th century), Joao added kitchens with the famous bottle-like chimneys. In the 16th century, king Manuel I added a whole wing with rooms decorated in the characteristic Manueline style, which now is obviously called the Manueline wing. Also, all the rooms in the palace at that time were redecorated with Mudejar-style tiles, which you can see during your visit to the palace.

The visit to the palace starts with the Swan Hall, named so because of the swan fresco panels on the ceiling. It used to be Main Hall in the times of Joao I, and all the royal entertainment took place here. There are also patios with beautiful water grottoes and fountains, and the Magpie Room, with the frescoes of these birds on the ceiling and green and blue, sun-like azulejos on the walls and surrounding the fireplace. You can also see several more rooms from the same period, including the Galleon Room, with frescoes of ships, until at last, you make your way to the Coat-of-Arms Hall (1495-1521), which is by far the most impressive room in the palace. It has gilded woodwork on a domed ceiling, crowned by the royal coat of arms, surrounded by coats of arms of 72 noble families. The walls are covered by 17-18th century frescoes and azulejos of hunting scenes. There are also a Chinese room with models of pagodas, an amazing Palatine chapel, built by King Dinis and redecorated by King Manuel I, with white doves on pink walls and a gorgeous mudejar ceiling, an Arab room (Manuel’s bedroom), a guest room (Manuel’s oratory), and of course, the kitchen itself, with the bottle-like chimneys and copper pots and pans, and the Manueline Room, with an enormous crystal chandelier. All the furniture, paintings, tapestries, and ceramics in the palace were once part of royal family collections.