Visit the Episcopal Palace of Castelo Branco

The Episcopal Palace of Castelo Branco, located in the Parish of Castelo Branco, today the Francisco Tavares Proença Júnior Museum, is an example of residential, Renaissance, baroque and rococo religious architecture.
At the end of the 16th century, Bishop Nuno de Noronha, bishop of Guarda, ordered the construction of the Episcopal Palace of Castelo Branco. Through the lapidary and emblazoned engraving we can verify that the building work began in May 1596, concluding two years later. The building was intended for the temporary residence of the prelates, during the winter periods, since the climate of Castelo Branco was a little milder than that of Guarda. In 1771, with the creation of the diocese, the Palace of Castelo Branco became, then, permanent episcopal residence.
It was only in 1711 that the residence of Castelo Branco was the object of rebuilding, by D. João de Mendonça. At that time the garden was built, and a garden garden.
From the date of his inauguration, in 1782, the second bishop of Castelo Branco, D. Frei Vicente Ferrer da Rocha, soon realized works of improvement in the palace and some interventions in the gardens and the spatial organization of the forest. With the collaboration of the Dominican architect and friar Daniel da Sagrada Família, interventions were made in the body erected to the north that includes the staircase and the noble door, the balcony, the colonnade and the entrance hall, which gave the palace a greater capacity.
In 1786, there was a great increase to the purchase of ornamental pieces that populated the entire palace.
Antecede the palace a large walled courtyard, to where it is facing the main facade. This is two stories, all the upper floor features noble floors, by the use of bay windows topped by countercurved pediments, as opposed to the single, quadrangular windows of the ground floor.
The façade facing the garden is poorer, and still features elements of the old sixteenth-century building, where a loggia is evident. Also in the interior one can still see structures of the 16th century, now occupied by exhibition halls and already very impoverished, the old chapel with gilded carved ceiling with paintings, from the XVIII century, which represent the Litanies of the Virgin and other allegories to the Weapons of Chastity.
The constructive typology of the palace influenced many of the constructions of the time and later, having become a reference for the architecture of that zone.

Visit the Garden of the Episcopal Palace - Castelo Branco

The Jardim do Paço Episcopal (or of S. João Baptista), located in the Parish of Castelo Branco, was built by the Bishop of Guarda, D. João de Mendonça, around 1720.
In the garden are the statues of St. John the Baptist and that of Mary Magdalene, dating from 1725.
Adjacent to the Palace is the staircase of the 33-step apostles.
In formal terms, the garden is divided into four different sites, but connected by several points of articulation: the entrance, the floor of the boxwood, the flooded garden and the upper plane.
The current entrance of the garden is practiced by Rua Bartolomeu da Costa, since 1936, the year in which it was designed by the engineer Manuel Tavares dos Santos. The mural panels covered with tiles served as a repository of memories but were never fully filled: ancient views of the city and the portraits of the two bishops who drove the building of the garden were the motives chosen. The portal is of the century. XVIII and came from the garden gardens.
Jardim do Buxo has a rectangular plan and constitutes the main landing.
It is divided into 24 plots, bordered by hedges and boxwood sidewalks, and has 5 lakes with fountains implanted. In addition, it boasts a high number of statues.
The Alagado Garden, next to the previous one, is located in the South band. It is a set of trapezoidal beds that, illusorily, seems to emerge from the middle of the lake, provoking a surprising visual effect.
Between these two landscaped spaces is the Lake of the Crowns, with three pieces of fountains. The lake rests on a balcony with an elevation above the garden and in it parades the fourth dynasty of the Portuguese monarchs until D. José I, as well as D. Sebastião.

Visit the Paços do Concelho of Braga - Sé (Braga)

The present Paços do Concelho, located in the parish of Sé, are in Renaissance style and were built in the 18th century.

The building, considered by some specialists as one of the most outstanding examples of Baroque architecture in the Iberian Peninsula. The project was authored by the architect André Soares, and his only work is documented in the city. Although its construction began in 1753, it was only completely finished in 1865. It is classified as a Property of Public Interest.

Visit the Archbishop's Palace of Braga - São João do Souto (Braga)

The Paço Arquiepiscopal, located in the parish of São João do Souto (Braga), is the palace of the Archbishops of Braga and over the centuries, with the addition of new buildings has resulted in an extraordinary multi-architectural urban complex.

The Medieval Paço de Braga is the oldest building in the complex and faces the Jardim de Santa Bárbara. It is from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It constitutes a sober building with the appearance of a fortification, which stands by the solidity of the regular apparatus of granite blocks, spans of ogival arch windows, surmounted by battlements.

The building includes the facades facing Largo do Paço where the rectory of the University of Minho, including the Noble Hall, is located.

The building facing the town square was erected in the early 18th century, this building was consumed by a fire on April 16, 1866, and was rebuilt during the 1930s.

Visit the Convent of Our Lady of the Conception - Salvador (Beja)

The Convent of Our Lady of the Conception of Beja, located in the Parish of Salvador, belonged to the Order of the Friars Minor, and the Province of the Algarves.

In 1459, it was founded and granted license for its institution by two short ones of Pio II

It was erected next to the Infante Palace, in the center of the city. It began to be built on the initiative of the Duke of Beja, the infant D. Fernando (brother of D. Afonso V) and his wife D. Beatriz, the first dukes of Beja and country of D. Manuel.

In 1461 he received the oratory of St. Vitus.

In 1463, the third ones had already made profession in the Order of Santa Clara.

In 1469, the convent was almost completed, received the invocation of Our Lady of the Conception of Mary Most Holy, and the urbanist rule, as shown in the bull of December 21 of that year, granted by Pope Paul II.

In 1505, through the intervention of the Duchess of Beja, in spite of the observing direction, the convent became a pantheon of the ducal family.

With the end of religious orders the convent fell into decadence and was on the verge of ruin.

In 1895, the Paço dos Infantes was demolished, which was annexed to the convent, and part of the convent area. At that time it was possible to partially rebuild the convent.

On October 5, 1927, the Regional Museum of Art and Archeology was inaugurated in the building of the Monastery of Nossa Senhora da Conceição that occupies it up to the present day.