Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Architects: José da Costa e Silva (1747-1819) and Francisco Xavier Fabri (1761-1817)
Built: 18th / 19th / 20th Century
Residential architecture, neoclassical. Royal palace with a simple rectangular plan, divided into four wings around a rectangular courtyard, with small internal courtyards in the north and south wings. Façades in limestone masonry, evolving in two and three floors, taking advantage of the unevenness of the terrain, divided by entablatures and with different architectural orders, but with a Tuscan base, with a mezzanine, on the last or first floor, finishing with an entablature and balustraded parapet, displaying panoplies on the turreted bodies that flank the main façade.
This has the first floor lined with split ashlar, giving it a rustic appearance, with arcades providing access to the courtyard, through a large vestibule covered by groin vaults and resting on Tuscan pillars; on the second floor, there is a balustraded balcony, onto which straight French windows open, surrounded by round arches, ending in a triangular pediment with no return.
The courtyard is simple, with the side wings divided into rectilinear openings with cut-out frames, some topped by a cornice. The interior has, in each wing, a grand staircase, preceded by a large vestibule, which gives access to the various floors, marked by dependencies on both sides and a central corridor. The museum area of ??the royal palace features parquet floors, painted or silk-lined walls, with wooden paneling painted white and gold, and ceilings with original neoclassical paintings or paintings from the end of the 19th century. 19.
A very large palace, where some of the official ceremonies of the Portuguese state and receptions for foreign heads of state currently take place, which served as the royal residence of the penultimate Portuguese monarch, King D. Luís I, who was responsible for recreating its decoration, which removed some of the decorative splendor of the end of the 19th century. 18th and beginning of the 19th, executed by order of D. João VI.
The building is unfinished and with the main and stately façade facing east, and the original is planned to face south, due to various political vicissitudes, which did not allow the project of a palace that would be twice the size of the current one, with two courtyards connected by a central body, to be carried out. Note the similarities between the designs of one of its architects, Francisco Fabri, and those executed for the Palace of Caserta by Vanvitelli. The work of Manuel Caetano de Sousa is still visible in the modinatures of the towered bodies, with cut-out frames and wide friezes, topped by angular or curved cornices, of late-Baroque inspiration.
Inside, the administrative wings have been somewhat altered, with special mention to the maintenance carried out on a small residential wing, facing south, where Queen Maria Pia lived before the establishment of the Republic in 1910, with rich parquet floors, painted ceilings, some neoclassical, silk lining and the existence of a winter garden, in stonework, jasper and crystal, commissioned at the end of the 19th century. 19.
It has an interesting collection of paintings, sculptures and an important collection of porcelain, the oldest dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. 18, with other more modern ones, from 1905, manufactured in European or Eastern factories, the majority gathered through acquisitions or orders from Queen D. Maria Pia. In the large hall leading to the inner courtyard, there is an important collection of sculptures from the end of the 19th century. 18th and early 20th century. 19, bringing together examples from the best masters of that period, from Machado de Castro to Francisco de Assis, including João José Aguiar and other fundamental workshops of Portuguese statuary; most are signed and dated and represent Virtues.
