Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira

The Palácio dos Marquis de fronteira (Palace of the Marquis de fronteira ) is a palace in Lisbon's São Domingos de Benfica, at Largo de São Domingos de Benfica, below the Serra de Monsanto. He is considered a significant example of the Portuguese Renaissance architecture and is one of the few palaces that have the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 unscathed, and so can give a good impression of the splendor of the Portuguese nobility during the time of the Portuguese empire.

History

The palace was built in 1650-1675 by Dom João de Mascarenhas, second Conde de Torre and first Marques de fronteira, in the Italian style. The plant consists until today in their original form.

Outside

A large park in the style of a classic Italian garden forms the grounds of the palace. It is L -shaped in the east and south of the palace, and as this is very rich with panels of painted tiles called azulejos, decorated. The partly monochrome blue, some multicolored azulejos come from Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain and dress up large parts of the garden architectures and the base floor of the palace. The illustrations show a wide range of topics on: mythological subjects, portraits, simple everyday scenes of country life, hunting and fishing that genre scenes, personifications of the elements, planets and signs of the zodiac, month views, countless domestic and exotic animals, allegorical representations with as people dressed monkeys and cats and much more.

Prior to the main facade on the east side of the palace is the large ground floor, a formal garden with geometrical hedges and trees; it is divided into four square compartments. In the center of the plant and in the middle of the individual departments, which are further sub-divided again into four parts, are wells, the outer corners of the four main divisions are accentuated by life-sized lead sculptures.

The formal garden is bounded on the south all along the width of a large fountain in the pool there are other sculptures. On the large wall tiles on the back wall of the plant are 14 life-size equestrian to see represent the partial members of the Mascarenhas family. About two flights of stairs to the left and to the right to reach the floor above the Galería dos Reis ( Gallery of the Kings ), in which the marble busts of all Portuguese kings until John VI. are exhibited. The self- conscious political program of the decoration is obvious: the nobility, 1640 - only a few years before the construction period - had contributed decisively to end Spanish rule in Portugal, is the basis of the kingdom.

From the Gallery of the Kings leads out to the west in the slightly higher free-form Jardim de Vénus ( Garden of Venus) in front of the south facade of the palace with its old trees from the 19th century. The extremely rich with azulejos, free-standing sculptures and colored, plastic terracotta decorations in the style of Della Robbia equipped terrace of the Galería de las Artes ( Gallery of the Arts) mediates between the garden and the palace. Here is the chapel from the 16th century and the oldest part of the plant as well as the Casa de Fresco ( Cool House ), a small building with a playful rococo - water basin in front of the entrance and over with glass, colored stones, broken porcelain tiles and ornate facade. Inside, the classic garden motif of the cave with fountains, gargoyles and a Wall of stones and natural materials such as shells picked up.

Interior

The palace is divided into various rooms, so the Sala dos Batalhas ( Hall of Battles ), taking place in the typically large feast. There is also a azulejos flow with Dom Fernando de Mascarenhas, the first Conde de Torres, who played an important role in the Restoration War from 1640. Furthermore, to find in this hall significant panels of Pedro Alexandro. Also located in the castle a relief of Dom Pedro de Mascarenhas, a Viceroy of India and the last Abbot of Crato. Throughout the house there are valuable paintings of de Sequeira and Pellegrini.

Significance of the property

For Portugal, this property had an outstanding importance: Long visited the neuakkreditierten Ambassador before the king the Marquês de fronteira. In the house the most important literary salons of Portugal took place under the direction of Marquessa de Alorna, better known under the name Alcipe. According to the legend of St. Francis Xavier is said to have held before crossing to India in the chapel of his last Mass on European soil. Also, the palace was the residence for the later Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley, who here found rest and relaxation during the Iberian wars against Napoleon. The German nobleman and writer Felix Fürst von Lichnowsky stayed for several weeks in 1843 at the invitation of the Marquês de fronteira in the property and wrote about it. The French writer Pascal Quignard let his novel La frontière play in the facilities of the palace. The German writer Friedrich Sieburg called the park even " one of the most artistic and beautiful gardens in the world ."

Visit

The palace is still inhabited by the descendants of the Mascarenhas family. The grounds can be visited, the inner region only at certain times or after consultation. CURRENT head of the Mascarenhas family is Dom Fernando Jóse Fernandes Costa Mascarenhas, 12 Marquês de fronteira.

Swell

• Knauer's Culture Guide Lisbon. In 1998.
• What you can do Portugal. Dumont 1988.
• Jakob job: Portugal, land of the Knights of Christ. In 1956.
• Lisbon is a literary portrait. Insel-Verlag 1997.
• Art and History, Lisbon. Bonechi -Verlag.
• Rolf Osang: Bruckmanns countries portrait. Portugal., 2001.
• Helmut Dollhopf / Rüdiger Neumann: Portugal - cultural landscape., 2003.
• Jose Cardoso Pires: Lisbon logbook. In 1997.
• Jörg Schubert: Lisbon. In 1981.