{"id":169,"date":"2013-06-13T19:50:36","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T19:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisbonstopover.com\/?p=169"},"modified":"2013-06-14T12:30:22","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T12:30:22","slug":"ribeira-palace-terreiro-do-paco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/?p=169","title":{"rendered":"Ribeira Palace, Terreiro do Pa\u00e7o"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Ribeira Palace<\/b>\u00a0was the main residence of the\u00a0Kings of Portugal, inLisbon, for around 250 years. Construction of the palace was ordered under King\u00a0Manuel I of Portugal, when he found the\u00a0Royal Palace of Alc\u00e1\u00e7ova\u00a0unsuitable. The palace suffered innumerous remodels and reconfigurations from its original\u00a0Manueline\u00a0complex, ending with its final\u00a0Mannerist\u00a0and\u00a0Barroque\u00a0form.<\/p>\n

The palace, along with most of the city of Lisbon, was destroyed in the\u00a01755 Lisbon earthquake. After the earthquake, the reigning monarch, King\u00a0Jos\u00e9 I, suffered from claustrophobia and chose to live the rest of his life in a complex of pavilions in the hills of\u00a0Ajuda, and thus the palace was never rebuilt.<\/p>\n

Today, Lisbon’s primary square, the\u00a0Pra\u00e7a do Com\u00e9rcio<\/i>, is situated on the site of the former palace. The square is still popularly referred to as the\u00a0Terreiro do Pa\u00e7o<\/i>, reminiscent of the now destroyed royal residence.<\/p>\n

After the\u00a0Siege of Lisbon, in 1147, the\u00a0monarchs of Portugal\u00a0had used the Palace of Alc\u00e1\u00e7ova, in the\u00a0Castle of S\u00e3o Jorge, as their residence while inLisbon, which did not become Portugal’s definite capital until 1225. Over the years, various Portuguese monarchs added to the Palace of Alc\u00e1\u00e7ova, and by the time King\u00a0Manuel I of Portugal\u00a0succeeded the throne, the Palace of Alc\u00e1\u00e7ova was a large, but crampt, complex, not fitting with the tastes of King Manuel I. With his lucrative profits from Portugal’s monopoly on the spice trade, King Manuel I set of on a building spree, renovating the Lisbon landscape, and starting with the construction of a new royal palace.<\/p>\n

The groundbreaking lof the palace was in 1498. The new palace was not to be located on a high and easily protected fortress hill, like the Palace of Alc\u00e1\u00e7ova was, but instead it was built on the river shore of the\u00a0Tagus river, giving it the name of Ribeira Palace, or Palace of the Riverside. The new royal palace was located in the heart of renaissance Lisbon, which had become one of the most important cities and ports in all Europe, on account of its importance in the spice trade and\u00a0Age of Discoveries. Ribeira palace was situated next to theRibeira das Naus<\/i>\u00a0shipyard and near all the major Lisbon trading houses.<\/p>\n

In 1502, the palace had been built large enough so that the Portuguese Royal Court could begin moving into the palace. In 1508, King Manuel I started expansion works on the palace, which ended in 1510, and appointed\u00a0Diogo de Arruda\u00a0as head architect of the project. The King was an absolutist in all manners, and sought to concentrate all his powers in Ribeira Palace, by holding the\u00a0Portuguese Cortes\u00a0and installing the\u00a0Casa da \u00cdndia, the imperial administration, in the palace’s walls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The palace of King Manuel I, and his successors until King\u00a0Henry I of Portugal, was a true palace of the\u00a0Portuguese Renaissance. Done in the\u00a0Manuelinestyle, among others, the palace included various wings, loggia, balconies, gardens, and courtyards. The main loggia of the palace, facing the\u00a0Terreiro do Pa\u00e7o, followed the style employed by King Manuel I at many of his palaces, most notably at the\u00a0Royal Palace of \u00c9vora.<\/p>\n

The hallmark of the palace, not just in the Manueline era but in all it’s history, was its\u00a0Tower of the King<\/i>, in the southern wing. During the Manueline era, the Casa da \u00cdndia was installed in the tower, which hoisted a large sculpture of the Royal Coat of Arms of Portugal on the exterior of the tower, facing the river. Starting in 1525, King\u00a0John III\u00a0sponsored a set of enlargements and renovations to the palace, which, most notably, altered the\u00a0Tower of the King<\/i>, expanding it and opening a large balcony, faced towards the Tagus.<\/p>\n

It was during the Manueline era, when the\u00a0House of Aviz\u00a0ruled Portugal, that the\u00a0Portuguese Renaissance\u00a0truly flourished, and Ribeira Palace was one of its centers. It was a beacon for artists, scientists, navigators, and noblemen from all over Portugal and Europe alike. It was at Ribeira Palace, in 1515, that\u00a0Gil Vicente, the father of Portuguese and Spanish theatre, first performed his play,\u00a0Quem Tem Farelos?<\/i>, for King Manuel I. The Palace was also where other great Portuguese and European artists and scholars presented themselves, including\u00a0Lu\u00eds de Cam\u00f5es, famed Portuguese playwright,\u00a0Crist\u00f3v\u00e3o de Morais, famed Portuguese painter, and\u00a0Pedro Nunes, famed Portuguese mathematician and royal tutor.<\/p>\n

Philipine era<\/h3>\n

When the\u00a0Portuguese House of Habsburg\u00a0seized the throne, in 1580, the newly acclaimed King\u00a0Philip I of Portugal\u00a0started a large series of constructions and renovations throughout Portugal, seeking to rehabilitate the kingdom after the\u00a0War of the Portuguese Succession. During his three year stay in Lisbon, from 1580 to 1583, King Philip I, who also ruled as King of Castile, Aragon, and Naples, considered turning Lisbon into the imperial capital of his trans-European monarchy and empire.<\/p>\n

To better suit Lisbon for King Philip I’s extravagant court, the King ordered the remodeling and expansion of Ribeira Palace, under the authority of\u00a0Filipe Ter\u00e7o, the Master of the Royal Works. King Philip I decided to modernize the palace, stripping it of its early renaissance, Manueline style and planning and converting Ribeira Palace into a monumental, organized\u00a0Mannerist\u00a0complex. The highlight of the Philipine renovations was the reconstruction and enlargement of the\u00a0Tower of the King<\/i>, which transformed a three-story Manueline tower, which housed the\u00a0Casa da \u00cdndia, into a five-story Mannerist tower, complete with an observatory and one of the largest royal libraries in all of Europe.<\/p>\n

When King Philip I left Lisbon, in 1583, Ribeira Palace became the official seat of the\u00a0Council of Portugal\u00a0and the residence of theViceroys of Portugal. King Philip I’s successors, King\u00a0Philip II, and King\u00a0Philip III, did not continue his legacy of stressing the importance of Lisbon, and instead visited their Portuguese capital only on rare ceremonial occasions. However, each time King Philip II and King Philip III visited Ribeira Palace, they ordered the construction of a ceremonial arch for the palace’s\u00a0Terreiro do Pa\u00e7o<\/i>, culminating in a large series or triumphal and ceremonial arches by the end of the Philipine era.<\/p>\n

Brigantine era<\/h3>\n
\n
Ribeira Palace of the\u00a0Brigantine\u00a0era was a vast and modern palatial complex, including an opera and cathedral.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Another King to improve the Palace was\u00a0John V, who invested great sums \u2013 derived from the gold mines in\u00a0colonial Brazil\u00a0\u2013 to enlarge and embellish the Ribeira Palace. The original manueline chapel was turned into a magnificentbaroque\u00a0church, and the Palace gained another wing, parallel to the previous one. Later in the century,\u00a0King Joseph I\u00a0built a Royal Opera House by the Palace, designed by the Italian\u00a0Giuseppe Bibiena.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Opera House, inaugurated in 1755, lasted only a few months. On 1 November of 1755, a\u00a0huge earthquake, and resulting\u00a0tsunami\u00a0and fire destroyed the palace and most of Lisbon. King Joseph I was not at the palace and survived. His Prime Minister, the\u00a01st Marquess of Pombal, coordinated a massive reconstruction effort that would give rise to the\u00a0Pombaline Downtownof Lisbon. The royal family abandoned the Ribeira area and moved to palaces in the areas of\u00a0Ajuda\u00a0and\u00a0Bel\u00e9m.<\/p>\n

\"Paco_da_RIbeira_depois_da_terramota\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The old Palace Square (Terreiro do Pa\u00e7o) gave rise to a new square, the Pombaline Commerce Square (Pra\u00e7a do Com\u00e9rcio). The two towers at the corners of the square are still reminiscent of the old tower of the Ribeira Palace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ribeira Palace\u00a0was the main residence of the\u00a0Kings of Portugal, inLisbon, for around 250 years. Construction of the palace was ordered under King\u00a0Manuel I of Portugal, when he found the\u00a0Royal Palace of Alc\u00e1\u00e7ova\u00a0unsuitable. The palace suffered innumerous remodels and reconfigurations from its original\u00a0Manueline\u00a0complex, ending with its final\u00a0Mannerist\u00a0and\u00a0Barroque\u00a0form. The palace, along with most of the city of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisbonstopover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}