The Throne Room
Iberia's most splendid rococo mirrors and gold.
Jean-Christophe BENOIST — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0
For the hardy early: Queluz at nine, then the train onward to Sintra by noon — an epic palace day. For most, its own calm half-day (or a rainy day's pair) is truer: Sintra honestly drains a day alone, and Queluz deserves an unexhausted eye.
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Queluz is Portugal's pink Versailles: the kings' summer palace (1747-1794) in complete rococo elegance — the Throne Room of mirrors and gold among Iberia's most splendid, the Ambassadors' Hall with chessboard floor and musicians' ceiling, and the rooms of Maria I, the queen who lived here both her glory and her sad madness. Its gardens are half its glory: box geometries, English lead statues, ponds — and at their crown the azulejo canal: a stream walled in nautical blue tile where royal gondola parties once floated: Portugal's finest marriage of water and tile. The Rossio-Sintra rail line itself joins it (Queluz-Belas station, then a quarter-hour walk) — so it is either the early riser's first stop on the long Sintra day, or its own easy half-day: Pena's beauty at a quarter of her noise.
Iberia's most splendid rococo mirrors and gold.
Nautical blue tile walling the water.
Largo Palácio de Queluz, 2745-191 Queluz