Travel Back to the Majestic Baroque
Lisbon, Portugal
Rating: 
Trip Type: Private Sightseeing Tours
Duration: 7 hours
Dear to do something else than just the usual Lisbon and Sintra tours. In this tour we will take us to the most majestic baroque construction of the 18th century Europe, the Palácio Nacional de Mafra. From here we will visit also the fishing village of Ericeira with all its gastronomy and history.
More About This Activity All Private Sightseeing Tours →
Dear to do something else than just the usual Lisbon and Sintra tours. In this tour we will take us to the most majestic baroque construction of the 18th century Europe, the Palácio Nacional de Mafra. From here we will visit also the fishing village of Ericeira with all its gastronomy and history.
Join us in this private tour to Mafra to discover a magnificent building that was only possible due to the Brazilian gold that poured into the country, allowing King João V to carry out the building of the biggest baroque palaces from the 18th century.
You will be walking though the longest corridor ever built in a palace (232 m long).
All made of limestone and marble from this region (Pêro Pinheiro and Sintra), the building covers an area of almost four hectares (37.790 m2), including 1.200 rooms, more than 4.700 doors and windows, 156 stairways and 29 inner yards and courtyards.
Its construction began on November 17, 1717 and it integrates 4 buildings in one: the palace, the convent, a basilica and a library.
The basilica has an ensemble of 6 organs that are unique in the world, commissioned by D. João VI from the organ builders Machado Cerveira and Peres Fontanes.
The library itself is one of the most important in Europe, having an enormous variety of books (more than 30.000 volumes) from the XVth to the XVIIIth century. Showing its importance at the time, the Pope Benedictus XIV emitted a Papal bull (1754) allowing this Library to shelter the Index of forbidden books and prohibits under threat of excommunication “anyone of any state or condition, at any time or in any way, to take, remove or borrow any printed book or manuscript stored in the Library without the permission of the Portuguese King.”
Flanked by two towers, the basilica is the “center piece” of the façade having been designed by the German architect Johann Friedrich Ludwig and commissioned by D. João V.
After this immersion in history we will go and visit the fishing village of Ericeira, take a stroll, taste the local gastronomy and get to know a bit more of its history.
You will be walking though the longest corridor ever built in a palace (232 m long).
All made of limestone and marble from this region (Pêro Pinheiro and Sintra), the building covers an area of almost four hectares (37.790 m2), including 1.200 rooms, more than 4.700 doors and windows, 156 stairways and 29 inner yards and courtyards.
Its construction began on November 17, 1717 and it integrates 4 buildings in one: the palace, the convent, a basilica and a library.
The basilica has an ensemble of 6 organs that are unique in the world, commissioned by D. João VI from the organ builders Machado Cerveira and Peres Fontanes.
The library itself is one of the most important in Europe, having an enormous variety of books (more than 30.000 volumes) from the XVth to the XVIIIth century. Showing its importance at the time, the Pope Benedictus XIV emitted a Papal bull (1754) allowing this Library to shelter the Index of forbidden books and prohibits under threat of excommunication “anyone of any state or condition, at any time or in any way, to take, remove or borrow any printed book or manuscript stored in the Library without the permission of the Portuguese King.”
Flanked by two towers, the basilica is the “center piece” of the façade having been designed by the German architect Johann Friedrich Ludwig and commissioned by D. João V.
After this immersion in history we will go and visit the fishing village of Ericeira, take a stroll, taste the local gastronomy and get to know a bit more of its history.
« Go Back