The Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira (

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira) is a Portuguese palace 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 ...

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 ...

History

The Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira was built in 1671 as a hunting pavilion to

Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

João de Mascarenhas, 1st

Marquis of Fronteira Count of Torre (in Portuguese ''Conde da Torre'') was a Portuguese title of nobility created by a royal decree, dated from July 26, 1638, by King Philip II of Portugal, and granted to '' Dom'' Fernando de Mascarenhas, Lord of Rosmaninhal. The ne ...

, who received his title from King

Afonso VI of Portugal Afonso VI (; 21 August 164312 September 1683), known as "the Victorious" (), was the second king of Portugal of the House of Braganza from 1656 until his death. He was initially under the regency of his mother, Luisa de Guzmán, until 1662, wh ...

for his loyalty to the

House of Braganza The Most Serene House of Braganza ( pt, Sereníssima Casa de Bragança), also known as the Brigantine Dynasty (''Dinastia Brigantina''), is a dynasty of emperors, kings, princes, and dukes of Portuguese origin which reigned in Europe and the Ame ...

in the

Portuguese Restoration War The Portuguese Restoration War ( pt, Guerra da Restauração) was the war between History of Portugal (1640–1777), Portugal and Habsburg Spain, Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon (1668), ...

. The palace is the private residence of the Marquesses of Fronteira.

Palace

The palace is located in a very quiet area, near the

Monsanto Forest Park Monsanto Forest Park ( pt, Parque Florestal de Monsanto) is a municipal protected forest in Lisbon, Portugal, the largest green patch in the city, with almost 1000 ha (10 km2). It offers a well diversified tree-covered area to the Port ...

. The house and the garden have glazed tiles representing different themes such as battles or monkeys playing trumpets. The Room of the Battles has panels representing scenes of the

. They depict the

Battle of Montijo The Battle of Montijo was fought on 26 May 1644, in Montijo, Spain, between Portuguese and Spanish forces. Although the battle ended with a Portuguese victory, the Spanish saw it as a strategic success as they claimed to have prevented Matias d ...

(1644),

Battle of Arronches The Battle of Arronches was an encounter between the forces of the Portuguese Empire and of the Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or t ...

(1653), Siege of Badajoz (1658),

Battle of the Lines of Elvas The Battle of the Lines of Elvas (), was fought on 14 January 1659, in Elvas, between Portugal and Spain during the Portuguese Restoration War. It ended in a decisive Portuguese victory. Background By 1659, the Portuguese Restoration War which ...

(1659),

Battle of Ameixial The Battle of Ameixial, was fought on 8 June 1663, near the village of Santa Vitória do Ameixial, some north-west of Estremoz, between Spain, Spanish and Portugal, Portuguese as part of the Portuguese Restoration War. In Spain, the battle is b ...

(1663),

Battle of Castelo Rodrigo The Battle of Castelo Rodrigo, also known as the Battle of Salgadela, was fought on 7 July 1664, near Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, between Spanish and Portuguese as part of the Portuguese Restoration War. After a number of skirmishes, the Duke o ...

(1664),

Battle of Montes Claros The Battle of Montes Claros was fought on 17 June 1665, near Vila Viçosa, between Spanish and a combined Anglo-Portuguese force as the last major battle in the Portuguese Restoration War. The battle resulted in a decisive Portuguese victory and ...

(1665), and encounter at Chaves (1667). The dining room is decorated with portraits representing some members of the Portuguese

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

, painted by artists such as

Domingos António de Sequeira Domingos António de Sequeira (Lisbon; 10 March 1768Rome; 8 March 1837) was a famous Portuguese painter at the Royal Court of King John VI of Portugal. Biography He was born in Belém, Lisbon, into a modest family. He later changed his family nam ...

. The chapel, dating from the end of the 16th century, is the oldest part of the palace. The façade is adorned with stones, shells, broken glass and porcelains. It seems that those pieces were used during the palace's inauguration and were broken on purpose just not to be used again. In spite of being the current residence of the Marquis of Fronteira some of the rooms, the library and the garden are open to public visits.

The garden

The palace garden, an area of 5,5 hectare, is adorned with Portuguese tiles with pictures that represent the different

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

s as well as

mythological Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

figures. The garden hedges are cut in order to represent the different year

seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...

. There is also a stone staircase which leads to a wall line with busts of the

Kings of Portugal This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution. Through the nea ...

Notes

External links

Fronteira Palace: Beautiful Gardens and Spectacular TileworkPalácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira
{{coord, 38, 44, 24, N, 9, 10, 49, W, region:PT-11_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Palaces in Lisbon Gardens in Portugal Historic house museums in Portugal Azulejos in buildings in Portugal National monuments in Lisbon District