Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa

Overview

The Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa was the seat of the House of Braganza, the dukes who became kings of Portugal in 1640 and reigned until 1910, a long Mannerist front of pink Estremoz marble begun in 1501 by Duke Jaime and finished in 1635, on the edge of a small marble town 150 km east of Lisbon. It is run by the foundation that Manuel II, the last king, created in his will, opened to the public in 1984, and holds the family’s paintings, tapestries, frescoes and one of the largest carriage collections in Europe.

The visit is by guided tour through the state rooms and the apartments where Carlos I and Queen Amélia lived before he left for Lisbon on 1 February 1908 and was shot; the rooms were kept as they were.

Visiting

The palace stands on the great square below the castle hill, facing the Augustinian church where the dukes are buried, the bishop’s palace and the Convent of the Chagas; the long front is entirely faced in marble, broken by two doorways and rows of pedimented windows. Inside, the marble staircase rises past a fresco of the taking of Azamor, and the tour follows a single corridor through the Sala das Tapeçarias, hung with Flemish wall hangings, with its 17th-century blue-and-white tiles and painted vault, the Hall of Music, the Medusa Hall with its fireplace of 1611, the Great Hall with the Talavera tiles installed for Teodósio II’s wedding in 1602, and the early 17th-century frescoes that are among the richest cycles in Portuguese art.

The New Quarters hold the rooms of Carlos I and Amélia, the dining hall of 1770 and the king’s own paintings; the kitchens, the armoury, the Chinese porcelain and the treasury are separate tickets, as is the carriage museum in the old stables. The Lady’s Garden beside the residence keeps its symmetrical beds and statues.

History

The Braganzas held Vila Viçosa from 1461 and lived in the castle until Fernando II, the third duke, was executed for treason by João II in 1483 and the family fled to Castile; Duke Jaime, back from exile in 1498, refused to live in the castle and built a new palace outside the walls from 1501, among olive groves and springs, and paid for its growth with the spoils of his victory at Azamor in Morocco in 1513. Teodósio I began the marble facade in the 1530s for his sister’s royal wedding, and Teodósio II rebuilt it from 1583 to the classical design completed in 1635, under Nicolau de Frias and Pedro Vaz Pereira, two storeys of Tuscan and Ionic orders with a third added from 1610.

When Duke João became King João IV in 1640 the court moved to Lisbon, the palace’s riches went to the Ribeira Palace and Vila Viçosa became a holiday house; Maria I added the tower and the New Quarters from 1762, and Carlos I and Amélia refurbished those rooms as their semi-official home. After the revolution of 1910 the palaces were closed; Manuel II’s will of 1932 set up the Fundação da Casa de Bragança, the state restored the building between 1945 and 1952, and it opened on 18 May 1984.

Tips

• Tours are guided and in Portuguese with printed sheets in English; the state rooms alone take an hour and a half, and the palace closes for lunch.
• The castle on the hill above, where the dukes lived before 1483, has a hunting museum and the view over the town’s marble quarries.
• Vila Viçosa is marble: the pavements, the door frames, the church steps. Estremoz and Borba, with the quarries and the wine, are 15 km away.
• The town holiday is 16 August; book if you want to be here for it.

Nearby

• Castle of Vila Viçosa: five minutes uphill.
• Church of the Agostinhos, the Braganza pantheon: on the square.
• Estremoz: 17 km west.
• Évora: 55 km west.