The Buçaco Palace is a former convent that today houses a luxury hotel located in the Buçaco mountain range, in the municipality of

Mealhada Mealhada () is a city and a municipality located in Aveiro District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 20,428, in an area of 110.66 km2. It had 17,043 eligible voters (2006). The city of Mealhada itself has a population of 4,522.

, in central

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

.José Mattoso História de Portugal - Volume 5 1993 - Page 678 "Palace Hotel do Buçaco, por _ Luigi Manini (1848-1936). Depois de terem sido ostas de lado as possibilidades db converter a cerca buçaquina dos frades carmelitas em parque romântico, tal como o havia projectado em Turim, no ano de ..." It is a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

History

The area around the Buçaco Palace was part of a

Discalced Carmelite The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...

convent established in 1628. The monks of the

Convento de Santa Cruz do Buçaco Convento de Santa Cruz do Buçaco is a former Carmelite monastery in the Mata Nacional do Buçaco ( Buçaco Forest) protected forest of the Serra do Buçaco, Portugal. It was constructed in 1628. It closed in 1834 following the suppression of male ...

not only built a convent but also created a luxurious garden with many species of trees. The garden was supposed to represent

Mount Carmel Mount Carmel ( he, הַר הַכַּרְמֶל, Har haKarmel; ar, جبل الكرمل, Jabal al-Karmil), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias ( ar, link=no, جبل مار إلياس, Jabal Mār Ilyās, lit=Mount Saint Elias/Elijah), is a c ...

(where the order was founded) and the

Earthly Paradise In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28 an ...

. Date from the late 17th century a series of chapels with representations of a ''

Via Crucis The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The stations grew out of imitati ...

'' in the garden. Part of the convent, including the church with

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

altarpieces, is still preserved beside the palace. At the entrance of the old convent, there is a plaque to the

Battle of Bussaco The Battle of Buçaco () or Bussaco, fought on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War in the Portuguese mountain range of Serra do Buçaco, resulted in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army. Having o ...

which commemorates the fact that Viscount Wellington, who later became the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...

, spent the night in the convent after the battle on 27 September 1810. The Carmelites left Buçaco in 1834 century following the

dissolution of the monasteries in Portugal The dissolution of the monasteries in Portugal was a nationalization of the property of male monastic orders effected by a decree of 28 May 1834 enacted by Joaquim António de Aguiar at the conclusion of the Portuguese Civil War. Portugal thus termi ...

Palace Hotel

Late in the century there were plans to turn the ancient convent into a royal residence for Queen Maria Pia, wife of King Luís I. However, difficult political circumstances soon led to the decision to turn the palace into a hotel. The Palace Hotel of Buçaco was built between 1888 and 1907. The first architect was the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Luigi Manini Luigi Pietro Manini, Count of Fagagna (Crema, Lombardy-Venetia, 8 March 1848 – Brescia, 29 June 1936) was an Italian set designer, architect, painter. He arrived in Lisbon, Portugal in 1879, where he lived until he returned to Italy in 1913. M ...

(1848-1936), who designed a Romantic palace in

Neo-Manueline Neo-Manueline is a revival style of architecture which drew from the 16th century Manueline Late Gothic architecture of Portugal. Neo-Manueline constructions have been built across Portugal, Brazil, and the Lusophone world (the former Portuguese ...

style, evoking the 16th-century architectural style that characterised the peak of the Portuguese

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafarin ...

. The Buçaco Palace is inspired in iconic

Manueline The Manueline ( pt, estilo manuelino, ), occasionally known as Portuguese late Gothic, is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese architectural style originating in the 16th century, during the Portuguese Renaissance and Age of Discoveries. Manuel ...

buildings like the

Jerónimos Monastery The Jerónimos Monastery or Hieronymites Monastery ( pt, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, ) is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal. It became the necropolis o ...

and the

Belém Tower Belém Tower ( pt, Torre de Belém, links=no, ), officially the Tower of Vincent of Saragossa, Saint Vincent ( pt, Torre de São Vicente, links=no) is a 16th-century fortification located in Lisbon that served as a point of embarkation and dis ...

, both located in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. Manini was succeeded by Nicola Bigaglia, José Alexandre Soares and Manuel Joaquim Norte Júnior, the latter responsible for the annex ''Casa dos Brasões'' (House of the Coat-of-Arms). The inner rooms are richly decorated with Neo-Manueline portals and stucco work imitating Manueline

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic ...

ing, being also an important showcase of Portuguese painting and sculpture of the early 20th century. The inner walls are also decorated with

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

(''

azulejo ''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, resta ...

'') panels by Jorge Colaço. These panels depict scenes taken from

Portuguese literature Portuguese literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the Portuguese language, particularly by citizens of Portugal; it may also refer to literature written by people living in Portugal, Brazil, Angola and Mozambique, and other P ...

as well as historical events like the

References

Palace Hotel do Buçaco in the IPPAR website
{{Portuguese Monarchy Topics Palaces in Portugal Royal residences in Portugal Buildings and structures in Aveiro District Hotels in Portugal Buildings and structures in Mealhada National monuments in Aveiro District