Ajuda National Palace Audio Guide for Lisbon

Inside this guide

1. 01

   Welcome to Palácio Nacional da Ajuda

   Ajuda National Palace: Hello, and welcome to the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda. You are standing on one of Lisbon's western hills, in the parish of Ajuda, not far from the river and the historic waterfront at Belém.

   Hello, and welcome to the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda. You are standing on one of Lisbon's western hills, in the parish of Ajuda, not far from the river and the historic waterfront at Belém. Take a moment to look up at the long, pale facade in front of you. This is the palace that Portugal's royal family began building at the very end of the eighteenth century, and it is one of the country's national monuments. The story here is a story of interruptions. Ajuda was meant to replace an earlier royal residence on this same hill, a building of timber known as the Real Barraca, the Royal Tent, a palace the court lived in almost as though it were a large wooden house. Construction of the stone palace began in 1795, and the work was repeatedly interrupted by wars, exile and political upheaval. It became the royal family's regular residence in the second half of the nineteenth century, while parts of the original project remained unfinished. So as we wander through these rooms together, you will hear about a palace that was never quite finished, and about the people who lived in it anyway: kings, queens, architects and painters who turned this hilltop into a stage for Portuguese royal life. Where the historical record is thin, I will say so honestly rather than fill the gap. Let us begin.

2. 02

   From Earthquake to Exile: How Ajuda Came to Be

   Ajuda National Palace: To understand why the Palace of Ajuda exists at all, go back to the first of November, 1755. On that day a catastrophic earthquake struck Lisbon. The royal family had been living in the old palace by the river, the Paço da Ribeira, and it was destroyed.

   To understand why the Palace of Ajuda exists at all, go back to the first of November, 1755. On that day a catastrophic earthquake struck Lisbon. The royal family had been living in the old palace by the river, the Paço da Ribeira, and it was destroyed. In the aftermath of the disaster, and during the reign of King Dom José the First, the court moved out to this western hill, to the Quinta da Ajuda. They settled into a wooden structure known as the Real Barraca, the Royal Tent, a timber residence that stood here until the end of the eighteenth century. Once that wooden palace was gone, work began in 1795 on a permanent stone palace worthy of the royal family. The road from there was anything but smooth. A year after the works started, the architect Manuel Caetano de Sousa launched a scheme in the Baroque taste, which by then was already out of step with the times. In 1802 the project was completely reformulated by Francisco Xavier Fabri and José da Costa e Silva, who gave the palace the Neoclassical form you see today. Then history intervened again: in 1807 the royal family departed for Brazil ahead of the French invasions, and later came the civil war between liberals and absolutists. Financially strained and politically battered, the palace was built slowly, decorated slowly and inhabited irregularly until the monarchy fell in 1910. That same year, by decree on the sixteenth of June, it was declared a national monument.

3. 03

   Neoclassical Stone, Neo-Baroque Gold

   Ajuda National Palace: Now let us look at the building itself, because it holds two different tastes inside a single shell. The architecture of the Palace of Ajuda is Neoclassical: symmetrical, sober, drawing on the forms of the ancient world, which is exactly what Fabri and Costa e Silva had in mind when they reshaped the plans in 1802. Step inside, though, and the mood changes.

   Now let us look at the building itself, because it holds two different tastes inside a single shell. The architecture of the Palace of Ajuda is Neoclassical: symmetrical, sober, drawing on the forms of the ancient world, which is exactly what Fabri and Costa e Silva had in mind when they reshaped the plans in 1802. Step inside, though, and the mood changes. The interior decoration, above all the Throne Room, reveals a Neo-Baroque taste, richer and more theatrical, saturated with gold and velvet in a way the cool stone facade outside would never lead you to expect. Several architects left their mark on this long project: Manuel Caetano de Sousa, José da Costa e Silva, Francisco Xavier Fabri and Custódio José Vieira. That list alone tells you how many hands and how many decades this building absorbed. And a palace is not only built, it is filled. The atrium, the ceilings and the facade carry works by artists whose names still ring through Portuguese art history: the sculptors Machado de Castro and João José de Aguiar, and painters such as Domingos António Sequeira, Foschini and Cirilo Volkmar Machado. So when you look up at those painted ceilings, remember that you are looking at a nineteenth-century royal effort to turn a stone building into a statement about Portugal itself.

4. 04

   The Palace as a Royal Home and a Living Museum

   Ajuda National Palace: Ajuda truly became a royal home in the second half of the nineteenth century. When Dom Luís the First became king and married an Italian princess, Maria Pia of Savoy, this palace was chosen as the residence of the Portuguese royal family.

   Ajuda truly became a royal home in the second half of the nineteenth century. When Dom Luís the First became king and married an Italian princess, Maria Pia of Savoy, this palace was chosen as the residence of the Portuguese royal family. If you want to picture Ajuda at its most lived-in, picture that moment: a young royal couple, a growing family, rooms dressed in the latest fashion of the day. Those rooms are the reason the museum exists. From the 1980s onwards, the palace began to be painstakingly reconstituted as a royal residence, grounded in rigorous historical research. And since 1996, a programme called Uma Sala Um Mecenas, which means One Room, One Patron, has invited private sponsors to fund the restoration of individual rooms back to their appearance in the era of Dom Luís. The restored rooms help visitors understand how the royal household used the palace, rather than presenting its collections as isolated objects. The collections speak for themselves. Ajuda holds one of Portugal's great collections of decorative arts, from furniture and ceramics to textiles and painting. The adjoining Museum of the Royal Treasure displays the Portuguese Crown Jewels and other royal treasures, but it is a separate visitor attraction. Check its own admission arrangements if you want to go: a palace visit, and this audio guide, should not be taken to include entry to that museum. Inside the palace, let a restored room tell you about daily life as well as ceremony. A chair, a porcelain piece or a fabric can reveal the preferences of the people who actually lived here.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Ajuda National Palace: The Palace of Ajuda is more than a museum of a vanished monarchy. From its earliest days it has served as a dignified setting for state ceremonial, and it still does: it lends its splendour to ceremonies of the Presidency of the Republic, while remaining one of the most important museums of decorative arts in the country.

   The Palace of Ajuda is more than a museum of a vanished monarchy. From its earliest days it has served as a dignified setting for state ceremonial, and it still does: it lends its splendour to ceremonies of the Presidency of the Republic, while remaining one of the most important museums of decorative arts in the country. That double life, royal past and working present, is what makes it feel alive rather than embalmed. So keep one idea with you as you leave today. This is a building that was never quite finished, and perhaps that is precisely what makes it interesting. Every restored room, every recovered piece of furniture, every repainted ceiling is an argument about what the past should look like and who gets to decide. Look for the small things as you go: a painted ceiling, a piece of porcelain, the way the gold of the Throne Room answers the pale stone of the facade outside. And if one room holds your attention longer than the others, follow that thread. There are centuries layered into this hilltop palace, and you have only just begun to pull at them.