Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira, Lisbon, Portugal

The Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira was built in 1671 as a hunting pavilion to Dom João de Mascarenhas, 1st Marquis of Fronteira, who received his title from King Afonso VI of Portugal for his loyalty to the House of Braganza in the Portuguese Restoration War.

The house and the garden have glazed tiles representing different themes such as battles or monkeys playing trumpets. The Room of the Battles has panels representing scenes of the Portuguese Restoration War; one of them shows D. João de Mascarenhas fighting a Spanish general. The dining room is decorated with portraits representing some members of the Portuguese nobility, painted by artists such as Domingos António de Sequeira.

The chapel, dating from the end of the 16th century, is the oldest part of the palace. The façade is adorned with stones, shells, broken glass and porcelains. It seems that those pieces were used during the palace’s inauguration and were broken on purpose just not to be used again.

In spite of being the current residence of the Marquis of Fronteira some of the rooms, the library and the garden are open to public visits.

The palace garden, an area of 5,5 hectare, is adorned with Portuguese tiles with pictures that represent the different arts as well as mythological figures. The garden hedges are cut in order to represent the different year seasons. There is also a stone staircase which leads to a wall line with busts of the Kings of Portugal.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Remi Shirayanagi (3 years ago)
Absolutely gorgeous and easily one of my favorite places that I visited on my trip to Lisbon! I just visited the gardens (5e) and it was so stunning. If you would like to visit the palace itself, you must join a tour (13e with admission to the gardens included), but I thought that the gardens were plenty. It is incredibly well kept and the tiling in the garden and on the palace is absolutely stunning. I spent an hour to 90 minutes just exploring the gardens themselves (while taking many Instagram photos as well of course).

Philipp Rose (3 years ago)
Just wow. Beautiful tiles and overall stunning atmosphere. Try to book the guided tour to get inside the palace. (I think it starts once daily at 12 noon and costs around 15€ per Person) Otherwise you are just allowed to visit the garden.

Paulo nunard (3 years ago)
Magical place. Beautiful estate. Definitely one of the most beautiful palace and gardens I have ever visited. Guided tour is the only way to visit the house. Tour guide knew her stuff and spoken very good English. Tour lasts an hour and afterwards you can walk around in the garden as long as you want. No photography allow inside the house. 14th generation Marquis and his family live there. A must visit when you are in Lisboa.

Anthony O'Connell-Gros (3 years ago)
Unfortunately we were unable to visit the inside as it was closed for renovation or something. That being said we were able to visit the garden and it was quite spectacular. Unfortunately the statues and building are not suffering from many years of exposure to the elements. The greenery was kept neat and tidy which was good to see. Overall quite nice and not many tourists which is always nice.

יניב אוחנה (4 years ago)
An amazing palace in its beauty and magnificent gardens. Prepare the phone's battery because it will not stop taking pictures. Entrance to the palace is ten euros per person, there is a tour that leaves at 11:00 and 12:00 . Entrance to the gardens - five euros per person. The place is quite desolate from tourists and I think there are three reasons for this: 1. It is far from the city center and any other tourist destination. 2. The place is relatively small. We did not enter the palace but the gardens are beautiful but you can cover them with a slow half hour walk. 3. Those in charge of the place do not give added value. I mean we bought tickets for the garden, we did not get with it a brochure that explains the place or the gardens. We know the place belongs to a noble family, so there must be a story. Why not interest the tourists. By the way, getting there is also a bit problematic and uninviting. It's like nowhere.

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