The town of Mafra is mainly known for its national palace, a Franciscan monastery with baroque and neoclassical architecture and is often compared to the Escorial palace in Spain. Mafra is just 40km from Lisbon and is easy to reach via the A8 (Highway nº8) which leaves Odivelas, northwest of the capital.
The village of Mafra is small and accessible. The main square right in front of the palace has cafes and terraces and is quite large. Parking is limited in this area, but in the adjacent areas it is easy to park your car.
The first thing you notice as soon as you arrive is the grandeur of the building in its Baroque style, where marble abounds. It has a somewhat austere appearance, but this is softened a little by its baroque decoration.
The building comprises three distinct parts: a basilica in the center, a Franciscan convent and a palace from the reign of D. João V. In fact, it was he who had it built in 1711 after promising that he would have a monastery built if God granted him an heir after three years of childless marriage. And so the project was born in 1717, whose works were handed over to the German architect Frederico Ludovice. Initially the project would include a convent to house 13 friars, but in the end it would end up receiving around 300, as well as the entire royal family. During the 13 years it took to be built, the king asked other architects for help and that is why the building has Germanic, Italian and Portuguese influences. This turned out to be a megalomaniac project for the time with 50,000 people working on its construction, in an area of 4 hectares and with a total of 4500 windows. The materials used come from Portugal (pine trees from Leiria, marble from Pero Pinheiro), Holland and Belgium (carillons), France (objects of worship), Brazil (precious wood) and Italy (walnut trees, statues, and marble).
The Basilica
The church is in the middle of the building and was built in marble like the turrets, standing out for its baroque style. Its towers are 68 meters high and house several niches with white marble statues from Carrara, Saint Dominic and Saint Francis.
The interior of the church is imposing given its size: fifty-eight meters long by forty-three meters wide. The dome (the highest and outer part of the church's dome) is sixty-five meters high and thirteen meters wide, having been the first of its kind to be built in Portugal. The church also stands out for the amount of marble used, as well as the statues, the altarpieces and the set of six organs and two chimes. In Mafra we have a series of ninety-eight bells tuned together, which makes them not only spectacular, but also one of the largest in the world.
Convent and Palace
The convent was initially supposed to be modest, but ended up undergoing several expansions and ended up housing 300 friars from the Order of Saint Francis. When visiting the convent we were able to see how the friars lived throughout the different rooms, infirmary, kitchen and bedrooms. The friars practically supported themselves alone, as D. João V determined, with only two “subsidies” being available twice a year.
On the second floor we have the royal apartments that occupy this entire floor, with the north pavilion being the King's Palace and the south pavilion the Queen's Palace. These two areas are separated by a 232 meter long corridor, the longest palace corridor in Europe, and were used to wait for royal audiences, as well as to display jewelry and dresses. It is effectively a huge corridor that connects the two wings, which operated separately with their own kitchen and staff.
Along this floor we find several elegantly decorated rooms with lots of furniture and painted ceilings, although D. João V took many of the objects and furniture when he left for Brazil in 1807. What stands out is the Diana's room, Throne room, Blessing Room and the spectacular Library which occupies an 83 meter long gallery, with a stunning pink, gray and white marble floor. On its carved walls in the style rocaille There are 40,000 books dating from the 14th and 19th centuries. An absolutely stunning room that completes the entire tour.
O Mafra Palace was classified as National Monument in 1910 is one of the references to visit in Greater Lisbon, along with the Pena Palace, in Sintra and the Queluz Palace.