PORTUGAL'S BEST ROMANTIC HOTELS - QUINTA DAS LÁGRIMAS

On the site of a famous but tragic fourteenth-century love story between Prince Pedro and Inês de Castro, Quinta das Lágrimas Palace holds the secrets of this fateful affair. Providing a superb choice of accommodation, guests may choose from the magnificent 18th-century palace, the Garden residence or the slick modernity of the Spa building, and enjoy a nine-hole pitch-and-putt course, a lake, two pools and a Michelin-starred restaurant. 

HOTEL HERITAGE AVENIDA LIBERDADE

The Hotel Heritage Avenida Liberdade is a small boutique hotel, located in Lisbon's main avenue, Avenida da Liberdade.

Design by Miguel Cancio Martins, a world-famous architect, the hotel is situated in an 18th century building with a facede which retains its original wooden entrance and shutters as well as the Pombaline tiles in the interior.

THE AJUDA NATIONAL PALACE

In the first half of the 18th century, King John V planned to build a summer residence in the Ajuda hill. The building of this Royal Palace in this place, however, would take place only after the Earthquake of 1755 which destroyed the royal residence, Paço da Ribeira (Ribeira Palace), at the Terreiro do Paço (Palace Public Square).

Although this palace was never completed as planned due to the exile of the royal family in Brazil caused by the French invasion of Portugal, it is still one of Europe's most perfect romantic buildings.

Its interior is richly filled with furniture, tapestries, statues, and extravagant decorative arts, the result of unprecedented wealth in the 1700s when diamonds were discovered in the then Portuguese colony of Brazil.

The Palace was closed after the proclamation of the Republic in 1910 and reopened to the public in 1968, as a Museum. Gathering important collections from the 15th to the 20th century, mainly of decorative arts, the Palace is still used by the Portuguese State for official ceremonies.

NATIONAL PALACE OF MAFRA

 

Built in the 18th century by order of King João V (1689-1750) in fulfilment of a vow he made, to be blessed with an heir from his marriage to Maria Ana of Austria, or be cured of a serious illness, the Royal Convent and Palace of Mafra is the most important baroque monument in Portugal.

Mafra was King D. João VI’s favourite palace, who commissioned, at the end of the 18th century, mural paintings for several rooms and a new ensemble of six organs for the Basilica.

The monument also contains one of the most important European libraries, with a precious collection of 36.000 volumes, a synthesis of 18th century encyclopaedic knowledge.  

And it was from this palace that the last king of Portugal, Manuel II, left for exile on the 5th October 1910, following the proclamation of the Republic. The Royal Palace opens as a museum in 1911 under the name of Palácio Nacional de Mafra.