Mafra Palace

Mafra is scale as a statement. Begun in 1717 under Joao V and paid for with Brazilian gold, it puts a royal palace, a basilica and a friary inside a single facade more than two hundred metres long, and the walk from the queen's apartments to the king's takes several minutes of corridor. Two carillons in the towers hold dozens of bells between them, and the basilica was fitted with six pipe organs designed to be played together. The library at the far end is the reason many people come: rococo shelving, tens of thousands of volumes, and a resident colony of small bats that feed on paper-eating insects after closing. UNESCO added the complex, gardens and hunting park in 2019.

What you actually see

• The library - a barrel-vaulted rococo hall of shelves, guarded at night by bats.
• The basilica - marble in grey, pink and white, with the six organs in the galleries.
• The carillons - two towers of bells, rung on a schedule from the terrace.
• The Tapada - the walled hunting park behind, now open for trails and wildlife.

When to go

Any season works since almost everything is indoors, but the unheated corridors are cold from November to March. Weekday mornings are the quietest. Check the carillon concert times before you go, and note that the Tapada park behind is a separate ticket with its own opening hours and gates.

Honest expectations

The route is long and largely repetitive - room after room of similar furniture before the library at the end, and photography inside the library is not permitted. The town of Mafra offers little else. Parts of the palace are frequently closed for conservation, and the basilica's organs are rarely heard outside scheduled concerts.

Nearby

Ericeira's surf coast is fifteen minutes west and Sintra half an hour south.