Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira
The Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira, also known as Fronteira Palace (in Portuguese Palácio Fronteira), in Lisbon, was built in 1640 as a hunting pavilion to Dom João de Mascarenhas, 1st Marquis of Fronteira.
In spite of some tall buildings, the palace is still located in a very quiet area, near the Monsanto forest-park (Lisbon). The house and the garden have beautiful glazed tiles representing different themes such as battles or monkeys playing trumpets.
In spite of being the current Marquis residence, some of the rooms, the library and the garden are open to public visits. The Battles Room has beautiful panels representing scenes of the Portuguese Restoration War; one of them shows D. João de Mascarenhas fighting a Spanish general. For his loyalty to King Pedro II of Portugal, during that war, he received the title of 1st Marquis of Fronteira.
The Dining Room is decorated with portraits representing some members of the Portuguese nobility, painted by artist such as Domingos António de Sequeira.
The Chapel, dated 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 seams that those pieces were used during the palace’s inauguration and were broken on purpose just not to be used again.
[edit] The garden
The palace garden has an area of 5,5 ha.[1] The visits to the garden begin in the Chapel yard. There, you will find niches with glazed tiles with pictures that represent the different arts as well as mythological figures. The garden hedges are cut in order to represent the different year seasons. There is also a stone staircase which take us to a yard where several niches are decorated with the Kings of Portugal busts.
