The fascination of the monarch for Rome led him to commission the work of important artists for Mafra, which ultimately became one of the most important examples of the Italian Baroque outside Italy.
The altarpieces of the Basilica, by Alessandro Giusti, an Italian artist who founded a school of sculpture in Mafra, were crafted in the following decades. Noteworthy are also the six organs of the Basilica, unique in the world, because they were designed and built to play simultaneously, according to the initial plan of the Basilica. These were carefully restored from onwards having received the Europa Nostra award.
The Palace continued to play its role as a Royal Palace through to the end of the monarchy. It was from this palace that the last king of Portugal, Manuel II, left for exile on the 5th October , following the proclamation of the Republic. Your browser needs Javascript support for this feature. Main Menu. Visit us Getting here Tickets. Basilica The Six Pipe Organs. Professional photo and filming. During the last reigns of the House of Braganza, the palace was mainly used as a base for hunting.
In the monastery part of the building was assigned to the military, a situation still in use today. The last king of Portugal, Manuel II, following the proclamation of the republic, left on 5 October from the palace to the nearby coastal village of Ericeira on his way to exile.
The palace was declared a national monument in A major restoration of the historical pipe organs began in with the collaboration of foreign experts and was finished in The restoration won the Europa Nostra award. The king, wishing to rival the splendour of Rome, had sought architectural advice from his ambassador to the Vatican, who sent him small-scale models of important Roman religious buildings.
The benedictal balcony at its centre is clearly mirrored on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. But this balcony is rather intended for the king, as a symbol of his power, than for the benedictions by a prelate. Their two carillons contain a total of 92 church bells, founded in Antwerp. The story goes that the Flemish bell-founders were so astonished by the size of their commission, that they asked to be paid in advance.
The king retorted by doubling the offered amount. These carillons constitute the largest historical collection in the world. The two towers are connected by two rows of Corinthian columns. The top row contains the statues of St. Dominic and St. Francis, sculpted from Carrara marble, standing in a niche on each side of the balcony. The lower row contains the statues of St. Clara and St. Elisabeth of Hungary.
The spacious royal apartments are situated on the second floor. The apartments of the king are situated at the end of the palace while the apartment of the queen is m away at the other end. Such was this distance that, when the king left his apartment towards the apartment of the queen, this was announced to the queen by the sound of a trumpet.
As king John VI had taken with him some of the best pieces of art and furniture in the building when the royal family fled in for the advancing French troops to Brazil, most rooms had to be redecorated in the original style. The royal family could here attend Mass, seated at a window opening unto the basilica. The church is built in the form of a Latin cross with a length of 63 m. It is rather narrow
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