Mafra National Palace - Portugal

[Antonio Correia]

From Wikipidia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafra_National_Palace) :
"The Mafra National Palace is a baroque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque) monument (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument) located in Mafra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafra), Portugal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal). The palace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace), which also served as a Franciscan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciscan) convent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convent), was built during the reign of King John V (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_V_of_Portugal) (1707-1750), in consequence of a vow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vow) made by the king, who promised to build a convent if his wife, the Queen Mary Anne of Austria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anne_of_Austria), gave him descendants. The birth of his first daughter, the princess Barbara of Braganza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_of_Braganza), made the king initiate the construction of the palace.
The building is among the most sumptuous baroque buildings in Portugal. The palace was built symmetrically from a central axis, occupied by the basilica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica), and continues lengthwise through the main façade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa%C3%A7ade) until two major towers. The structures of the convent are located behind the main façade. The building also includes a major library, with about 40,000 rare books and was also the location of a sculpture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture) academy. The basilica is decorated with several Italian statues and includes six pipe organs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_organs) and two carillons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon), composed of 92 bells."



http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/photos/102422340-M.jpg

[Antonio Correia]

As I had no comments on this I'll post some more for myself :D
http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/photos/102951336-M.jpg http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/photos/102948507-M.jpg http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/photos/102951750-M.jpg http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/photos/102950315-M.jpg http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/photos/102950805-M.jpg http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/photos/102950574-M.jpg

[GREAPER]

Very nice.

[Richard]

As I had no comments on this I'll post some more for myself :D


"It's good to be the King."
--Mel Brooks


I like the interior shots.

Cheers,

[Phil U.]

I like the interior shots! Very nice. The exteriors aren't doing much for me though.

[marlof]

I like the tilted exterior shot in the first post a lot. Nice work, Antonio!

[Antonio Correia]

I like the tilted exterior shot in the first post a lot. Nice work, Antonio!
Thank you Marlof. :thumb
It's an easy shot.:D

[Antonio Correia]

So, it worked !
I re-post with more pictures and I got answers. Good.:thumb

I thank you all for the kind comments.
Richard and Phill,
You mean Mel Brooks, the actor ?
I shot inside in a - shall I say - hurry may be.
I was coming from shooting my son on the board activity with some friends of his and I stoped at this place.

Let me tell you that this is the place where the military oficials were trained at the war Portugal had in Africa.
I myself have been here when I was young. As a matter of fact I was not coming here for 34 or 35 years.
I had never been inside the church.
At that time we wanted to go home for the week ends and we did not care about the building or so.
The exterior is cleaner now and there wasn't as many cars as nowadays.


All the best :thumb

[Antonio Correia]

Richard,
Here (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=404685#post404685) are the photos I was talking about some hours ago, that I took to my son and his friends, on the portuguese coast, surfing.
Regards:thumb