Main façade of the Sintra National Palace.

The Sintra National Palace (Portuguese: Palácio Nacional de Sintra), also called Village Palace (Palácio da Vila) is located in the village of Sintra, in Portugal near Lisbon. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x900, 169 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Sintra ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x900, 169 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Sintra ... Location    - Country Portugal    - Region Lisboa  - Subregion Greater Lisbon  - District or A.R. Lisbon Mayor Fernando Seara  - Party PSD-CDS-PPM-MPT Area 319. ... For other uses, see Lisbon (disambiguation). ...

It is the best preserved mediaeval Royal Palace in Portugal, having been inhabited more or less continuously at least from the early 15th up to the late 19th century. It is an important tourist attraction and is part of the Cultural landscape of Sintra, designated World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Dresden Elbe Valley World Heritage Site is according to the UNESCO an outstanding example of land use, representing an exceptional development of a major Central-European city having almost half a million inhabitants // [edit] Cultural landscape is defined as the human-modified environment, including fields, houses, church, highways, planted... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ...

History

Middle ages

The history of the Sintra Palace goes back to the times of Islamic domination, when Sintra had two different castles. One of them, located on top of a hill overlooking Sintra is the so-called Castle of the Moors (Castelo dos Mouros), which is now a romantic ruin. The other, located downhill, was the residence of the Moorish rulers of the region. In the 12th century, when the village was conquered by King Afonso Henriques, the King took the residence in his possession. The mixture of Gothic, Manueline and Moorish styles in the present palace is, however, mainly the result of building campaigns in the 15th and early 16th centuries. The Islamic conquest of Iberia (711–718) commenced when the Moors invaded Visigothic Christian Hispania (Portugal and Spain) in the year 711 CE. Under the authority of the caliph at Damascus, and led by the Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar on April 30 and worked their... The Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle) is located in Sintra, Portugal. ... Romantics redirects here. ... Alfonso I Henriques of Portugal (Guimarães, 1109, traditionally July 25, – 1185), also known as the Conqueror, was the first king of Portugal, declaring his independence from Leon_Castile, a deed often identifying the Condado Portucalense as the first nation_based state of Europe. ...

From the ancient Palace of the Moorish rulers and earliest Portuguese Kings nothing has survived, with the exception of the Royal Chapel, possibly built during the reign of King Dinis I in the early 14th century. A great part of the Palace dates from the times of King John I, who sponsored a major building campaign starting around 1415. Dinis of Portugal (in archaic Portuguese Diniz; in English Denis), the Farmer (Port. ... Joao I KG (Portugues: João, IPA pron. ...

Palace of Sintra drawn by Duarte D'Armas around 1509. The Manueline Wing was not yet built. Unlike today, the front courtyard of the Palace was enclosed by a wall and several buildings. Clearly visible are the main façade of John's Wing with the entrance gallery as well as the conical kitchen chimneys

Most buildings around the central courtyard - called the Ala Joanina (John's Wing) - date from this campaign, including the main building of the façade with the entrance arches and the mullioned windows in Manueline and Moorish styles (called ajimezes), the conical chimneys of the kitchen that dominate the skyline of the city, and many rooms : Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Mullion, Cornwall is also the name of a village in Cornwall off the Lizard. ...

• the Swann's Room (Sala dos Cisnes) in Manueline style, named so because of the swans painted on the ceiling
• Pegas' Room (Sala das Pegas); the magpies (pegas) painted on the ceiling and the frieze hold the emblem por bem (for honour) in their beaks. This relates to the story that the king John I was caught in the act of kissing a lady-in-waiting by his queen Philippa of Lancaster. To put a stop to all the gossip, he had the room decorated with as many magpies are were women at the court.
• Arab Room (Sala dos Árabes) etc.

John I's son, King Duarte I, was very fond of the Palace and stayed long periods here. He left a written description of the Palace that is very valuable in understanding the development and use of the building. Another sign of the preference for this Palace is that Duarte's successor King Afonso V was born (1432) and died (1481) in the Palace. Afonso V's successor, King John II, was acclaimed King of Portugal in the Palace of Sintra. This article is about the bird. ... Philippa of Lancaster (1359 - July 19, 1415) was an English princess, daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster by his wife and cousin Blanche of Lancaster. ... Edward of Portugal (Duarte, in Portuguese), the Philosopher, eleventh king of Portugal, was born in Viseu on October 31, 1391 and died in Tomar on September 13, 1438. ... Afonso V of Portugal, Conqueror of African strongholds Afonso V, King of Portugal KG (Portuguese pron. ... John II of Portugal João II of Portugal (Portuguese pron. ...

16th century

The other major building campaign that defined the structure and decoration of the Palace was sponsored by King Manuel I between 1497 and 1530, using the wealth engendered by the exploratory expeditions in this Age of Discoveries. The reign of this King saw the development of a transitional Gothic-Renaissance art style, named Manueline, as well as a kind of revival of Islamic artistic influence (Mudéjar) reflected in the choice of polychromed ceramic tiles (azulejos) as a preferred decorative art form. Manuel I of Portugal (pron. ... See also Age of Sail. ... The western facade of Reims Cathedral, France. ... This article is about the European Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries. ... In architecture, manueline is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese style of architectural ornamentation of the first decades of the 16th century, incorporating maritime elements and discoveries brought from the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral. ... Teruel: Tower of the Cathedral, one of ten Mudéjar monuments of Aragón that comprise the World Heritage Site The Courtyard of the Dolls in the Alcázar of Seville Tower of the Santa maría church in Calatayud Las Ventas, Madrids Neo-Mudéjar bullfighting ring Mud... Mission, or barrel, roof tiles A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, porcelain, metal or even glass. ... A Ala dos Namorados. ...

King Manuel ordered the construction of the so-called Ala Manuelina (Manuel's Wing), to the right of the main façade, decorated with typical manueline windows. He also built the Coats-of-Arms Room (Sala dos Brasões) (1515-1518), with a magnificent wooden coffered domed ceiling decorated with 72 coats-of-arms of the King and the main Portuguese noble families. The coat-of-arms of the Coelho family was however removed after their conspiracy against king John II. Heraldry is the science and art of describing of coats-of-arms, also referred to as achievements or armorial bearings. ... Coelho (in english: Rabbit) is a common Portuguese surname. ...

Main courtyard of the Sintra Palace with a Mudéjar-style gallery and 16th-century tile decoration.

King Manuel also redecorated most rooms of the Palace with polychromed tiles specially made for him in Seville. These multicoloured tile panels bear Islamic motifs and lend an Arab feeling to many of the rooms inside. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixels Full resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 499 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Mudéjar Metadata This file... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixels Full resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 499 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Mudéjar Metadata This file... Teruel: Tower of the Cathedral, one of ten Mudéjar monuments of Aragón that comprise the World Heritage Site The Courtyard of the Dolls in the Alcázar of Seville Tower of the Santa maría church in Calatayud Las Ventas, Madrids Neo-Mudéjar bullfighting ring Mud... Mission, or barrel, roof tiles A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, porcelain, metal or even glass. ... For other uses, see Seville (disambiguation). ...

Modern times

In the following centuries the Palace continued to be inhabited by Kings from time to time, gaining new decoration in the form of paintings, tile panels and furniture. A sad story associated with the Palace is that of the mentally unstable King Afonso VI, who was deposed by his brother Pedro II and forced to live without leaving the Palace from 1676 until his death in 1683. Afonso VI, King of Portugal (Portuguese pron. ... Pedro II can refer to three monarchs: Peter II of Aragon (1174-1213) Peter II of Brazil (1825-1891) Peter II of Portugal (1648-1706) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The ensemble suffered damage after the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake but was restored in the "old fashion", according to contemporary accounts. The biggest lost to the great earthquake was the tower over the Arab Room, which collapsed. At the end of the 18th century, Queen Maria I redecorated and redivided the rooms of the Ala Manuelina. This 1755 copper engraving shows the ruins of Lisbon in flames and a tsunami overwhelming the ships in the harbor. ... Maria I of Portugal (pron. ...

During the 19th century, Sintra became again a favourite spot for the Kings and the Palace of Sintra was frequently inhabited. Queen Amélia, in particular, was very fond of the Palace and made several drawings of it. With the foundation of the Republic, in 1910, the Palace became a National Monument. In the 1940s, it was restored by architect Raul Lino, who tried to return the Palace to its former splendour by adding old furniture from other palaces and restoring the tile panels. It has been an important historical tourist attraction ever since. Carlos I, King of Portugal KG pron. ...

References

• José Custodio Vieira da Silva. O Palácio Nacional de Sintra. IPPAR-Scala Publishers, 2002 (in Portuguese).
• Turner, J. - Grove Dictionary of Art - MacMillan Publishers Ltd., 1996; ISBN 1-884446-00-0
• The Rough Guide to Portugal, 11th ed. March 2005; ISBN 1-84353-438-X

The Grove Dictionary of Art (1996) is a 34-volume encyclopedia of art. ...

External links

• Media related to Palácio Nacional de Sintra from the Wikimedia Commons.
• Site about the Sintra National Palace