Lisbon's beautiful palace - Ajuda

When the old royal resid­ence in what is now Praça do Comércio on Lisbon's waterfront was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755, the Portuguese king decided that it was safer to live on a hill. The chosen location was Ajuda which had been less affected by the dis­aster. The palace's rebuilding was an expen­s­ive series of experiments. The 1755 quake dest­r­oyed most of Lisbon, incl­ud­ing the royal palace. So alth­ough the royal fam­ily survived, King José I decided that the new palace should be built on a hill in the Ajuda district of Lisbon.

Main entrance of Ajuda Palace

 

Visitors can visit this Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, the second home of the Port­ug­uese royal family. It was built as the Paço de Madeira/wood. But in 1794 a fire destroyed this second palace and the vast majority of its treasures. Whereas the original stone mat­er­ial of the palace was deadly in an earthquake, the wood of the new palace made it suscep­t­ible to fire. Construction of a stone palace began in 1796.

When Napoleon’s army invaded Portugal in 1807, the royal family fled to Brazil, reigning from that Portuguese colony for some years. They left Palácio Nacional da Ajuda to the best art­is­ts and sculptors then, to work on it in their absence. But when the royals returned to Lisb­on in 1821, the work was in­com­plete and many prefer­red that the country become a republic.

Thus the royal palace was no longer royal, and the neo-classical building was turned into a museum; it also occas­ion­ally hosted off­ic­ial cer­emon­ies, but generally open to the public. It has quite a sumptuous interior, with elaborate décor in several magnificent rooms. The high­lights are the a] Audience Room; b] Throne Room with its ceiling painted in 1825 representing a heavenly temple; c] Banquet Room for official di­n­n­ers; and d] King João IV Room covered with 1823 paint­ings, including a ceiling. The rooms incl­ude a great collect­ion of clocks and an intact dinner service.

Amidst political turmoil in 1833, building stopped! It was only in 1861 that construction works began again, vigorous­ly. The in­terior was renovated as the royal home in 1862, the year Port­ug­uese King Luís I married Princess Maria Pia of Savoy. Soon the palace was where the royals lived AND it was also where diplomatic banquets were held.

Visitors see a music room, stunning dining room, office, games room and an indoor garden room which once housed ex­otic birds and plants. Maria Pia was a very gifted artist and her works are displayed at the Palace. But at King Luís I’s death in 1889 the royal family became div­ided. The con­tinuing building of the palace was no longer a pr­iority. With the overthrow of the Portuguese monarchy and the declaration of the Portug­u­ese Republic in 1910, the pal­ace was shut down and for dec­ades was cl­osed to the public.

In 1996 some of the rooms were restored to their original glory: fine chandeliers, painted ceilings, carved furniture, his­toric portraits, ornate doors, price­less sculptures and luxur­ious tap­e­stries.

Today’s Palace is only a third of the size of the original plans; the entrance used today was actually designed as a side entrance. The in­tended main entrance was supposed to face the river so that passengers arriving to Lisbon by ship would see an enorm­ous palace with a grand entrance atop of Ajuda hill. Such a project would have completely ch­anged Lis­bon’s city­scape. It was meant to be one of the larg­est palaces in Europe, with gardens cascading down to the river.

The Music Room is on the ground floor, the private flats on the second while State Rooms occupy the upper floor. There are 1000+ treasur­es, spread over 11 small sections, on 3 levels. The high­lights are the wor­ld's second biggest gold nugg­et, a magnificent dinner set by famed sil­versmith François-Thomas Germain, a 1790s diamond-covered badge, and golden roses from Pope Gregory XVI (1842). As a museum, it gathers imp­or­t­ant collections of C18th-19th decorative arts: gold-silver works, textiles, furniture, ceramics, paintings, sculptures and photographs.

Im­portant State ceremonies held by the Rep­ub­lic’s President still occur. There are two museums, 1]Royal Treasure and 2] the Pal­ace itself. Both have unique pieces of Portuguese hist­ory, great paint­ings, furniture, tapestries, jew­el­lery, porcelains. There is inform­at­ion around the palace, telling the Portuguese royal fam­­il­y’s his­tory. The old ruined west­ern wing was completed in 2021 in modern st­yle to house the Royal Treasure Museum. After €31 mill­, it op­ened to the public June 2022, displaying precious crown jewels.

Audience Hall

Banquet Room

Throne Room

Ajuda Botanical Garden, designed by an Italian botanist, was laid out in 1768. It was Portugal’s first botanical garden, and while it has since lost many of its 5000 species of plants in the 1808 French invasion, the 1993 restorat­ion recr­ea­ted the original gar­d­en. It’s a shame that this fine building and art collection still need more Government investment.

Today the garden is a wonderful place to relax after exiting the Pa­l­ace. From all levels there’s a view of the river and 25 de Abril Bridge, including ancient shady trees and roaming pea­cocks. Some of the trees surround a beautiful C18th fountain adorned with myt­hol­og­ical figures, serpents and seahorses. Visit the garden indep­end­ent­ly from the palace.

Botanical Gardens

Read the very attractive blog: A Portuguese Affair.