Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira

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The Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira (Palace of the Marquis de Fronteira) is a palace in the Lisbon district of São Domingos de Benfica , on Largo de São Domingos de Benfica, below the Serra de Monsanto . It is considered an important example of Portuguese Renaissance architecture and is one of the few palaces that survived the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 unscathed, giving a good impression of the splendor of the Portuguese nobility during the time of the Portuguese Empire .

The palace around 1850

history

The palace was built between 1650 and 1675 by Dom João de Mascarenhas, second Conde de Torre and first Marquês de Fronteira, in the Italian style. The facility has remained unchanged to this day.

Outdoor area

A large park in the style of a classic Italian garden forms the outdoor area of ​​the palace. It is L-shaped in the east and south of the palace and, like the palace, is very richly decorated with tableaus made of painted tiles, so-called azulejos . The partly monochrome blue, partly multicolored azulejos come from Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain and cover large parts of the garden architecture and the basement of the palace. The representations have a wide variety of topics: mythological subjects, portraits, simple everyday scenes of rural life, hunting and fishing, genre representations , personifications of the elements, planets and signs of the zodiac, representations of the month, countless domestic and exotic animals, allegorical representations with apes dressed as humans and Cats and much more.

In front of the main facade on the east side of the palace is the large ground floor , a formal garden with geometrically cut hedges and trees; it is divided into four square compartments . In the center of the facility and in the middle of the individual departments, which are themselves divided into four parts, are fountains, the outer corners of the four main departments are accentuated by life-size lead sculptures.

Detail of the well system

The formal garden is bordered in the south across its entire width by a large fountain system, in whose basin there are further sculptures. On the large tiled wall on the rear wall of the facility, 14 life-size riders can be seen, some of which represent members of the Mascarenhas family. One floor higher you can reach the Galería dos Reis (Gallery of the Kings) via two outside stairs on the left and right , in which the marble busts of all Portuguese kings up to John VI. exhibited are. The self-confident political program of the decoration is obvious: the nobility, who in 1640 - only a few years before the construction period - had made a decisive contribution to ending Spanish rule in Portugal, form the basis of the kingdom.

From the Gallery of the Kings, to the west, you get to the slightly higher, freely designed Jardim de Vénus (Garden of Venus) in front of the south facade of the palace with its old trees from the 19th century. The terrace of the Galería de las Artes (Gallery of the Arts ), furnished with azulejos, free-standing sculptures and colored, plastic terracotta decorations in the style of Della Robbia , mediates between the garden and the palace. Here is the chapel from the 16th century, the oldest part of the building as well as the Casa de Fresco (Cool House), a small building with a playful rococo water basin in front of the entrance and one over and over with glass, colored stones, Porcelain shards and tiles ornate facade. Inside, the classic garden motif of the grotto with fountains, gargoyles and a wall design made of stones and natural materials such as shells is taken up.

Interior decoration

The palace is divided into various halls, such as the Sala dos Batalhas (Hall of Battles), which usually hosts large banquets . There is also an azulejo frieze with Dom Fernando de Mascarenhas, the first Conde de Torres, who played an important role in the Restoration War from 1640. Important panels by Pedro Alexandro can also be found in this room . There is also a relief in the castle that shows Dom Pedro de Mascarenhas, a viceroy of India and the last abbot of Crato . There are valuable paintings by de Sequeira and Pellegrini throughout the house .

Importance of the property

The seventh Marquis of Fronteira: José Trazimundo Mascarenhas Barreto

This property was of outstanding importance for Portugal: the newly accredited ambassadors visited the Marquês de Fronteira for a long time before the king. In the house the most important literary salons of Portugal took place, under the direction of the Marquessa de Alorna , better known under the name Alcipe . According to legend, St. Francis Xavier is said to have held his last mass on European soil in the chapel before the crossing to India . The palace was also the residence of the future Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley , who found peace and relaxation here during the Iberian wars against Napoleon . The German nobleman and writer Felix Fürst von Lichnowsky stayed in the property for a few weeks in 1843 at the invitation of the Marquês de Fronteira and wrote about it. The French writer Pascal Quignard had his novel La frontière set in the palace grounds. The German writer Friedrich Sieburg even called the park “one of the most artificial and beautiful gardens in the world”.

sightseeing

The palace is still inhabited today by the descendants of the Mascarenhas family. The outdoor facilities can be viewed, the indoor area only at certain times or after consultation.

literature

  • Knauer's cultural guide to Lisbon. 1998.
  • Proper travel Portugal. Dumont 1988.
  • Jakob Job : Portugal, land of the Christ Knights. 1956.
  • Lisbon - a literary portrait. Insel-Verlag 1997.
  • Art and History, Lisbon. Bonechi publishing house.
  • Rolf Osang: Bruckmann's country portrait. Portugal. 2001.
  • Helmut Dollhopf / Rüdiger Neumann: Portugal cultural landscape. 2003.
  • José Cardoso Pires : Lisbon Logbook. 1997.
  • Jörg Schubert: Lisbon. 1981.

Web links

Commons : Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 38 ° 44 '24.2 "  N , 9 ° 10' 48.9"  W.