Looking up in Mafra

The Palacio Nacional de Mafra was built by King Joao V in the late 18th century, as a palace-monastery on a scale to match the palaces of other absolutist monarchs of the day ? Versailles, Escorial, Hofburg. It is one of the largest buildings constructed in all Europe in the 18th century. The library has 40,000 books, for goodness sake!

Joao and his wife only spent a few days there before they fled Portugal, fearing for their safety when Napoleon started his Iberian campaigns.

I'm a medieval/renaissance man at heart, and S and I saw more than enough grandiose baroque architecture in Austria a couple of months ago. However I was pleased to find that the huge church which forms the centrepiece of the façade is in a relatively toned-down baroque style, as befits a monastery church, and the inside of the central dome is really beautiful.

More Mafra picture here