Castle Map

Palace

Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira

Portugal · 17th century

Founded
1671
Heritage status
National Monument of Portugal
Location
São Domingos de Benfica
Coordinates
38.74006°, -9.18024°
Links
OpenStreetMap · Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Wikipedia ↗
Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira in Portugal
Photo: Kent Wang · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

The Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira (Portuguese: Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira) is a Portuguese palace located in Lisbon, Portugal.

The Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira was built in 1671 as a hunting pavilion to Don 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 palace is the private residence of the Marquesses of Fronteira.

The palace is located in a very quiet area, near the Monsanto Forest Park. 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. They depict the Battle of Montijo (1644), Battle of Arronches (1653), Siege of Badajoz (1658), Battle of the Lines of Elvas (1659), Battle of Ameixial (1663), Battle of Castelo Rodrigo (1664), Battle of Montes Claros (1665), and encounter at Chaves (1667).

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.

Text adapted from “Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira ranks #1,365 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #20 of the 213 mapped in Portugal. Founded 1671, it is older than 24% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,079 times in the last 60 days, more than 88% of the atlas. 24 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Lisbon, 5 km away. See how Portugal compares in the castle statistics.

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