Portuguese Architecture

Name: Portuguese Architecture
Author: Watson, Walter Crum

Watson, Walter Crum

Architecture -- Portugal

Cintra was first taken by Alfonso VI. of Castile and Leon in 1093--to be
soon lost and retaken by Count Henry of Burgundy sixteen years later,
but was not permanently held by the Christians till Affonso Henriques
expelled the Moors in 1147. The Palace of the Walis was soon granted by
him to Gualdim Paes, the famous grand master of the Templars, and was
held by his successors till it was given to Dom Diniz's queen, St.
Isabel. She died in 1336, when the palace returned to the Order of
Christ--which had meanwhile been formed out of the suppressed Order of
the Temple--only to be granted to Dona Beatriz, the wife of D. Affonso
IV., in exchange for her possessions at Ega and at Torre de Murta. Dom
João I. granted the palace in 1385 to Dom Henrique de Vilhena, but he
soon sided with the Spaniards, for he was of Spanish birth, his
possessions were confiscated and Cintra returned to the Crown. Some of
the previous kings may have done something to the palace, but it was
King João who first made it one of the chief royal residences, and who
built a very large part of it.

A few of the walls have been examined by taking off the plaster, and
have been found to be built in the usual Arab manner, courses of rubble
bonded at intervals with bands of thin bricks two or three courses deep.
Such are the back wall of the entrance hall and a thick wall near the
kitchen. Outside all the walls are plastered, all the older windows, of
one or two lights, are enclosed in square frames--for the later windows
of Dom Manoel's time are far more elaborate and fantastic--and most of
the walls end in typical Moorish battlements. High above the dark tile
roofs there tower the two strange kitchen chimneys, huge conical spires
ending in round funnels, now all plastered, but once covered with a
pattern of green and white tiles.

[Illustration:

1. _Entrance Court._
2. _Sala dos Cysnes._
3. _Central Pateo._
4. _Sala das Pegas._
5. " " _Sereias._
5ª. " _do Conselho._
6. _Sala da Jantar._
7. _Servery._
8. _Sala dos Arabes._
9. _Chapel._
10. _Kitchen._
11. _Sala dos Brazões._
12. _Pateo de Diana._
13. _Wing or Dom Manoel._

PLAN OF PAÇO, CINTRA]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Portuguese ArchitectureWatson, Walter Crum

History

Portuguese Architecture

Watson, Walter Crum

Architecture -- Portugal

Cintra was first taken by Alfonso VI. of Castile and Leon in 1093--to be
soon lost and retaken by Count Henry of Burgundy sixteen years later,
but was not permanently held by the Christians till Affonso Henriques
expelled the Moors in 1147. The Palace of the Walis was soon granted by
him to Gualdim Paes, the famous grand master of the Templars, and was
held by his successors till it was given to Dom Diniz's queen, St.
Isabel. She died in 1336, when the palace returned to the Order of
Christ--which had meanwhile been formed out of the suppressed Order of
the Temple--only to be granted to Dona Beatriz, the wife of D. Affonso
IV., in exchange for her possessions at Ega and at Torre de Murta. Dom
João I. granted the palace in 1385 to Dom Henrique de Vilhena, but he
soon sided with the Spaniards, for he was of Spanish birth, his
possessions were confiscated and Cintra returned to the Crown. Some of
the previous kings may have done something to the palace, but it was
King João who first made it one of the chief royal residences, and who
built a very large part of it.

A few of the walls have been examined by taking off the plaster, and
have been found to be built in the usual Arab manner, courses of rubble
bonded at intervals with bands of thin bricks two or three courses deep.
Such are the back wall of the entrance hall and a thick wall near the
kitchen. Outside all the walls are plastered, all the older windows, of
one or two lights, are enclosed in square frames--for the later windows
of Dom Manoel's time are far more elaborate and fantastic--and most of
the walls end in typical Moorish battlements. High above the dark tile
roofs there tower the two strange kitchen chimneys, huge conical spires
ending in round funnels, now all plastered, but once covered with a
pattern of green and white tiles.

[Illustration:

1. _Entrance Court._
2. _Sala dos Cysnes._
3. _Central Pateo._
4. _Sala das Pegas._
5. " " _Sereias._
5ª. " _do Conselho._
6. _Sala da Jantar._
7. _Servery._
8. _Sala dos Arabes._
9. _Chapel._
10. _Kitchen._
11. _Sala dos Brazões._
12. _Pateo de Diana._
13. _Wing or Dom Manoel._

PLAN OF PAÇO, CINTRA]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Portuguese Architecture

Portuguese Architecture

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