Architecture sights in Lisbon
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A
Palácio Nacional da Pena
Rising up from a thickly wooded peak and often enshrouded in swirling mist, Palácio Nacional da Pena is pure fantasy stuff. The wacky confection is a riot of onion domes, Moorish keyhole gates, writhing stone snakes, and crenellated towers in sherbet-bonbon pinks and lemons. Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, the artist-husband of Queen Maria II, commissioned Prussian architect Ludwig von Eschwege in 1840 to build the Bavarian-Manueline epic (and as a final flourish added an armoured statue of himself, overlooking the palace from a nearby peak).
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B
Castelo dos Mouros
Soaring 412m above sea level, this mist-enshrouded ruined castle is a Great Wall of China in miniature. Like a dragon’s backbone, this 9th-century Moorish castle’s dizzying ramparts wriggle across the mountain ridges and past moss-clad boulders the size of small buses. When the clouds peel away, the vistas over Sintra’s palace-dotted hill and dale to the glittering Atlantic are – like the climb – breathtaking.
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C
Mosteiro dos Jerónimos
Belém’s undisputed heart-stealer is the Unesco-listed Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. The monastery is pure fantasy stuff; a fusion of Diogo de Boitaca’s creative vision and the spice and pepper dosh of Manuel I, who commissioned it to trumpet Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to India in 1498.
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D
Igreja de São Vicente de Fora
Graça’s serene, gorgeous Igreja de São Vicente de Fora was founded as a monastery in 1147, revamped by Italian architect Felipe Terzi in the late 16th century, and devastated in 1755’s earthquake when its dome collapsed on worshippers. Elaborate blue-and-white azulejos dance across almost every wall, echoing the curves of the architecture, across the white cloisters and up to the 1st floor. Here you’ll find a one-off collection of panels depicting La Fontaine’s moral tales of sly foxes and greedy wolves. Under the marble sacristy lie the crusaders’ tombs. Seek out the weeping, cloaked woman holding stony vigil in the eerie mausoleum. Have your camera handy for the…
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E
Gare do Oriente
Designed by acclaimed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the space-age Gare do Oriente is an extraordinary vaulted structure, with slender columns fanning out into a concertina roof to create a kind of geometric, crystalline forest. The Starship Enterprise –like entrance adds a sci-fi dimension to the organic edifice. Calatrava, it seems, is a trainspotter at heart, having put his signature on other stations in Zurich, Lyon and Valencia. Keep an eye out for bold murals by celebrated artists like Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Antonio Seguí and Arthur Boyd at the metro station.
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F
Palácio de Monserrate
The Moorish-inspired Palácio de Monserrate was constructed in the late 1850s by James Knowles for another wealthy Englishman, Sir Francis Cook. Previously on the site stood a Gothic-style villa, rented by the rich, infamous British Gothic writer, William Beckford, in 1794 after he fled Britain in the wake of a homosexual scandal. Visits to the recently restored Monserrate Palace are by 90-minute guided tour (including the grounds); reservations are essential.
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G
Palácio Nacional de Sintra
The icing on Sintra-Vila’s Unesco World Heritage cake is this palace, whose iconic twin conical chimneys set imaginations into overdrive and cameras snapping. Of Moorish origins, the palace was first expanded by Dom Dinis (1261–1325), enlarged by João I in the 15th century (when the kitchens were built), then given a Manueline twist by Manuel I in the following century.
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H
Aqueduto das Águas Livres
The 109 arches of the Aqueduto das Águas Livres lope across the hills into Lisbon from Caneças, more than 18km away; they are most spectacular at Campolide, where the tallest arch is an incredible 65m high. Built between 1728 and 1835, by order of Dom João V, the aqueduct brought Lisbon its first clean drinking water.
reviewed