Day 8 8/15/2023

Portugal - Sintra

Frank's Trip

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The National Palace...

To me, from the outside this looks like the giant building it is but not so much my mental picture of a palace. Then again, a palace is really just a big, very fancy house that people live in. Of course, those people are much different than us... and so is the palace interior.

Maybe the best thing about this palace is that it isn't up and down seeming endless hills. It is atop a gently sloping hill into the town center - at least, from where I was staying it was a gently sloping hill. Also quite a long hill so cumulatively it was quite a bit of a rise in the land.

UNESCO World Heritage Site Palacio Nacional de Sintra

Sintra National Palace was used by Portuguese nobility from the 15th to 19th centuries, making it the most-used royal residence in Portugal. It was damaged in the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, but was restored as accurately as possible.

The Royal Palace is undoubtedly the dominant architectural feature of Sintra, situated in the town center. Constructed on what was probably the site of the Moorish alcazar of Sintra, the palace’s buildings date from the early 15th and early 16th centuries. One of the most important features of the Palace is the facing with tiles (Azulejos), the finest example of this Mudéjar technique on the lberian Peninsula. The interior contains painted and tiled decoration and other features characteristic of the Mudéjar and late Gothic Manueline styles.

The large conical-shaped structures seen here (and in many large structures of old times) are chimneys for the kitchen. They gather and vent the hot and smoky air from these huge, busy kitchens.

Audience Patio

This patio, dating from the 15th Century, with throne and bench and decorated with Hispanic-Moorish tiles suggests this was a place where meetings or audiences were held. Outdoor meetings were common until the 16th Century.

Central Courtyard

Allows access to the various rooms in the palace of King Joao I and Queen Philippa without having to walk through every room. In the center there is a water jet in the form of a twisted column.

Videos: Water Grotto

2 short videos of Gruta dos Banhos - Water Grotto

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Water Grotto

An area of the courtyard protected from the sun where the tranquility could be enjoyed. Water jets that squirt from tiny holes in the walls provide a playful element. Built at the end of the 15th Century or beginning of the 16th, it was redecorated in the 18th.

Kitchen

Gallery Room

This room, which may have been a gallery, connected the chambers of King Joao III (1502 -1557) to the northwest wing of the palace.

Gold Chamber - The King & Queen sometimes used this area to meet people of a higher social status. The King could also sleep here on the bed surrounded by servants or a close family member who would sleep on the ground. In the 15th & 16th Centuries the walls were covered in gold, but that decor has been lost. In the 19th Century used as a dining room.

Wardrobe - where clothes, jewelry, silver and ceremonial items kept here

Camarim - In the 15th Century this room was divided into 3 small rooms that could be used as an annex to the Wardrobe. In the 18th Century the partitions were removed and it became the 'Camarim' and was used to store 'objects of great sdplendor'.

King Afonso VI Chamber

This is one of the chambers in the palace of King Dinis and Isabel of Aragon, the :Holy Queen" (13th Century), where King Afonso VI is thought to have been imprisoned in the final years of his life. The ceramic floor is one of the oldest in the entire building (circa 1435).

Sala dos Brasoes
Heraldic Hall

Video: Heraldic Hall

Video showing Sala dos Brasoes - Heraldic Hall

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Garden

Hausversicherung, Autoversicherung, Krankenversicherung und CO