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The National Palace of Sintra, also known as Palácio da Vila, is
located in the parish of Sintra (Santa Maria and São Miguel, São
Martinho and São Pedro de Penaferrim), in the village of Sintra,
Lisbon District, in Portugal.
It was one of the Royal Palaces
and today it is owned by the Portuguese State, which uses it for
tourist and cultural purposes. Of urban implantation, its
construction began in the 15th century, although an old construction
from the Muslim era was used.
It presents characteristics of
medieval, Gothic, Manueline, Renaissance and Romantic architecture.
It is considered an example of organic architecture, of a set of
apparently separate bodies, but which are part of a whole
articulated with each other, through patios, stairs, corridors and
galleries.
The Palace was used by the Portuguese Royal Family
practically until the end of the Monarchy, in 1910. It was here that
D. Manuel I received the news of the discovery of Brazil, it was
here that D. Afonso V was born and died, it was here that D. Afonso
VI, it was here that D. João II was acclaimed king.
In 2008
it was the most visited palace in Portugal with 408,712 visitors.
Currently the building is managed by Parques de Sintra - Monte da
Lua, as well as several other spaces and monuments in the
municipality of Sintra.
The Sintra National Palace has been
classified as a National Monument since 1910.
Sintra National Palace dates back to a primitive
palace that was donated by King João I of Portugal to the Count of Seia,
in 1383, returning to the royal possession shortly afterwards.
The palace was rebuilt in the 15th century, starting in 1489, when a
campaign of works was started that aimed to lighten the mass of the
construction and enrich the interior decoration, applying Andalusian
tiles.
Between 1505 and 1520, the so-called Manueline wing was
erected and, in 1508, the construction of the Sala dos Cobrasões began.
Some compartments of the so-called Manueline wing feature limestone
spans and fireplaces, characterized by relief decoration.
During
the reign of King João III, the space between the Johannine and
Manueline wings was built. In the 17th century, under the guidance of
the Count of Soure, alteration and expansion works were carried out and,
between 1683 and 1706, under the reign of D. Pedro II, the paintings on
the ceilings of some compartments were renewed.
In 1755,
important restoration works were carried out, following the damage
caused by the Lisbon earthquake, and the wing that runs from Jardim da
Preta to Pátio dos Tanquinhos was built.
A new decoration
campaign was carried out in 1863.
In the last years of the
monarchy, it was the summer residence of the Queen Mother D. Maria Pia,
the last royal inhabitant of the Paço da Vila de Sintra. Here, several
receptions were offered by the Queen Mother to statesmen who visited her
son, such as Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany or the President of France,
Émile Loubet, among others.
The palace has been classified as a
National Monument since 1910.
Between 1904 and 1958 it was served
by the Sintra tram, which had its terminal stop in the square bordering
the main entrance.
With a complex floor plan, it is organized in a "V" shape and
features staggered volumes, consisting mainly of cobblestones, with
the roof being made up of multiple different four-sided roofs.
A characteristic feature of this palace, quickly identified by
tourists, is the pair of tall conical chimneys with a height of 33
meters. The main elevation is organized into three bodies, the
central one being higher and set back from the ends. There is also
an arcade on the ground floor with four broken arches, topped by
five mullioned windows and limestone framing. The other fronts of
the building present a complex articulation of protruding and
recessed bodies, highlighting the cubic volume of the Sala dos
Brasões.
The internal compartments are reflected in nuclei organized around
patios, namely: the Archers Room, the Moura or Arab Room, the Pegas
Room, the Swans Room and the Coat of Arms Room, the Sereias Room and the
Audience, the Chinese Room or the Pagode Room, the D. Sebastião Room,
the D. Afonso VI Prison Room and the Kitchen.
The Coat of Arms
Room displays the arms of 72 Portuguese noble families and the eight
children that D. Manuel I had when it was built between 1516 and 1520.
The Swan Room takes its name from the fact that the ceiling is
completely decorated with 27 paintings of these animals. The reason
begins with a legend that suggested that the Duke of Burgundy had
offered a couple of swans to the Infanta D. Isabel. Now, the swan was
the emblem of Henry IV of England, brother of Philippa of Lancaster,
uncle of the Infanta. And it was also a symbol of eternal fidelity
common in the novels of the time, in which knights sailed across rivers
in a barge pulled by a swan to save the ladies.
The Sala das
Pegas was where D. Sebastião heard Luíz Vaz de Camões reading “Os
Lusíadas”. This is where the legend that Almeida Garrett tells in “O
Romanceiro”, a work from 1843, resides. “It is said that D. João I was
caught one day kissing the most beautiful maiden of the Court of Sintra
from her name Dona Mécia. And he was caught by D. Filipa de Lencastre,
an English queen and addicted to the moral order”. The king, when
caught, said: “It was a kiss for good. She is very beautiful and I
wanted to kiss her, nothing more.” The queen accepted the king's
apology, but behind the door were other maidens and they went to speak
ill of the king's kiss. “The king, when he heard, did not like it. And
to punish them, he had 136 magpies painted on the ceiling of this room,
supposedly the number of court maidens that existed in Sintra at the
time. Handles are notorious for making noise. And as they made a noise
saying for evil, he puts in his mouth a sentence saying: 'For good'.
But, as he was being accused of infidelity, on the handle that
corresponds to the queen he placed a rose - symbol of the house of
Lancaster - and the phrase: 'To whom I am faithful and clinging, to my
wife and to no other'".
Moura Room or Arab Room, it is probably
the bedroom of D. João I. The current decoration is from the Manueline
period, integrating tiles with a geometric composition with a
three-dimensional effect. The exoticism of the space is accentuated with
the sculptural set of the central fountain, in gilded bronze.
Chinese Room or Pagoda, located in one of the oldest areas of the
Palace, where the royal apartments would have been prior to the works of
D. João I. It contains a monumental Pagoda from the Qing dynasty, built
in China at the end of the 18th century or in the beginning of the 19th
century.
D. Sebastião's room, the king used this room to sleep
during his stays in Sintra. The decoration of the walls is from the 16th
century, with relief tiles, topped with a border of cut tiles, with
motifs of vines and cornflowers in the shape of a fleur-de-lis.
D. Afonso VI's Prison Room was where the king remained incarcerated and
guarded for 9 years by order of his brother, King D. Pedro II, following
his removal due to incapacity to reign, having ended up dying in this
room in 1683. It is one of the oldest rooms in the Palace, the only
compartment in which the window has an iron railing. Mudejar ceramic
flooring probably dates back to the 15th century and is particularly
rare.
The Palatine Chapel, with a rectangular floor plan and a
single nave, has walls covered with ornamental paint and a wooden
ceiling and ceramic floor, representing the oldest examples of Mudejar
work in Portugal. Religious space from the reign of D. Dinis (beginning
of the 14th century) with the invocation of the Holy Spirit (the reason
for the doves that carry an olive branch in their beaks) in the frescoes
on the walls.
In the kitchen, you can see otogonal beginnings of
the monumental and iconic chimneys. The kitchen, from the beginning of
the 15th century, was built for large hunting banquets, one of the
occupations of choice for the court and nobility. Inside, there are
several ovens and two large ovens, in addition to a stove and a kitchen
set in tinned copper, consisting of lunchboxes, fishmongers, pots, pans,
casseroles and frying pans. The white tile covering the walls from the
end of the 19th century is from the same period as the heraldic
composition with the royal arms of Portugal and Savoy placed there in
1889, belonging to Queen Maria Pia of Savoy, the last monarch to inhabit
the Palace.
In the Palace there is the Mãe d’Água, a small reservoir that rarely
lacks water and which, despite its simple size, still manages to feed
the monument’s rooms, all the gardens and fountains that beautify it.
The Palace is supplied by mines and springs located in the Serra de
Sintra, mainly within the Parque da Pena. From there, the water travels
through galleries, climbs small aqueducts, digs tunnels in the rock —
always driven by gravity — and enters lead pipes until it reaches the
reservoir.
It is a complex and intricate system, a work of
engineering that was innovative for its time, but also intriguing. It is
just that even today it is still unclear exactly where the water comes
from. And how far will she go? The lead pipes that the water runs
through have a problem: This pipe is very fragile and is quickly crushed
by tree roots. And so, over the years, the pipes were replaced by
stoneware shackles. Currently, plastic pipes are used, which are more
efficient, but are installed inside the original pipes to reduce the
cost of rehabilitation and not to compromise the integrity of the
system.