The Quinta da Ribafria (Ribafria Estate) is situated close to

Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populated ...

Lisbon District Lisbon District ( pt, Distrito de Lisboa, ) is a district located along the western coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Lisbon, which is also the national capital. From its creation until 1926, it included the area of the cur ...

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 ...

. It was built from 1536 to 1541 by Gaspar Gonçalves, a ceremonial official of the Portuguese Royal Household (the "Porteiro-mor" who was responsible for opening the door for visitors to enter the room where the king was), on land donated to him by

King Manuel I Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portugal, as ...

in 1515. The property is now owned by the Sintra Municipality.

History

The land donated by King Manuel I was at the time known as the ''Herdade das Laranjeiras'' (Orange Tree Estate), and it still contains many orange trees. Gaspar Gonçalves ordered the construction of a small

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

palace, which also contains elements of the

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 ...

style prevalent in Portugal at that time. On its completion, King John III appointed Gonçalves as Lord of Ribafria and awarded him an official

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

. The building incorporates a 17th Century tower inspired by medieval Portuguese buildings, which is covered by a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

with

merlon A merlon is the solid upright section of a battlement (a crenellated parapet) in medieval architecture or fortifications.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 202. Merlons are sometimes ...

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

s. The western side has the coat of arms in the stonework. The rest of the building is made up of two parts, but the façade is symmetrical and contains

Mudéjar Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for ...

battlements inspired by the

Mosque of Cordoba A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...

in Spain and also used in the

Church of Nossa Senhora da Anunciação The Church of Nossa Senhora da Anunciação ( pt, Igreja Paroquial de Mértola/Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Assunção/Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Anunciação) is a 12th-century church and former mosque in the civil parish of Mértola in the municip ...

Mértola Mértola () is a municipality in southeastern Portuguese Alentejo near the Spanish border. In 2011, the population was 7,274, in an area of approximately : it is the sixth-largest municipality in Portugal. Meanwhile, it is the second-lowest populat ...

, Portugal, which is a converted mosque. The interior has wooden

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also c ...

ed ceilings, which are painted with hunting scenes, as well as floral and marine motifs. There are chapels in the house as well as a small one a short walk away in the woods of the garden. The building is considered a good example of the Portuguese manor house of the time. 250px, The Garden Chapel Some damage was experienced to the buildings as a result of the earthquake in 1755. In 1902 the property was sold to the Count of Cartaxo. His grandson undertook restoration work in the 1960s. From 1987 to 2002 Quinta da Ribafria was home to the

Friedrich Naumann Foundation The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (german: Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit) (''FNF''), is a German foundation for liberal politics, related to the Free Democratic Party. Established in 1958 by Theodor Heuss, the first pres ...

. During this time work was undertaken to improve the garden and add office space in the garden, with the work being supervised by two well-known Portuguese architects,

Francisco Caldeira Cabral Francisco Caldeira Cabral GCIH • GOIP (Lisboa, 26 October 1908 – Coimbra, 10 November 1992) was a Portuguese landscape architect . He was an active and internationally reputed landscape architect from the 1940s to the 1980s. He was a pionee ...

and

Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles Gonçalo Pereira Ribeiro Telles (24 May 1922 – 11 November 2020) was a Portuguese politician and landscape architect. He was born and died in Lisbon. He was a founder of the People's Monarchist Party in 1974, and led it until 1994, when ...

. The estate was acquired by Sintra Municipality in 2003. After several years of neglect it was taken over by the Cultursintra Foundation (Fundação Cultursintra) and is now used for the display of sculptures and for open-air performances in the summer. The gardens can be visited daily but the house is closed to visitors without a special request.

References

Buildings and structures in Sintra Gardens in Portugal {{Commons-inline, Quinta da Ribafria, Sintra