Palace of the Dukes of Braganza
Fifteenth-century ducal palace above Guimarães, now a museum of tapestries, arms and furniture.
The palace was begun in the 1420s for Afonso, Count of Barcelos and later first Duke of Braganza, on a slope between Guimarães Castle and the town. Its plan is unusual in Portugal: four ranges around a rectangular courtyard, with steep roofs and a forest of tall brick chimneys that recall the manor houses of Burgundy and Normandy. When the family moved to Vila Viçosa in the sixteenth century the building was abandoned, and by the nineteenth century much of it stood roofless.
A long and heavily debated reconstruction ran from 1937 to 1959 under the architect Rogério de Azevedo, after which the palace served as an official residence of the head of state. It now works as a museum, with Flemish tapestries, Persian carpets, seventeenth-century Portuguese furniture, ceramics and arms displayed on the upper floor, together with the chapel and great banqueting hall. The palace stands within the Historic Centre of Guimarães, inscribed by UNESCO in 2001.
Highlights
- Four ranges round a courtyard, bristling with tall brick chimneys
- Flemish tapestries and Persian carpets on the noble floor
- Chapel with stained glass and the timber-roofed banqueting hall
- Within the UNESCO-listed Historic Centre of Guimarães
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