PORTUGAL AND THE DOURO: mateus

MATEUS

We had a grand tour of the Mateus Palace.

IMAGES OF MATEUS PALACE
http://www.casademateus.com/fund_ing.htm

It was delightful. The building was amazing and even off season the gardens were spectacular, basically due to the meticulous grooming.
We remember Mateus because of the distinctive shape of the bottle. It uses this palace, the traditional family place, as its label.
However, the wine is now made from grapes from all over Portugal. It is a rose wine and very inexpensive in Portugal and in the States.

The palace was impressive. I loved the baroque architecture, so much the opposite of modern.

Nasoni is a great favorite here in Portugal and he could be a favorite of mine, much more than Guggenheim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolau_Nasoni

We also visited representations of his designs in Porto, including the Clergios church where he was buried anonymously with other clergy. In his late life he joined the clergy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9rigos_Church

Mateus is perhaps done more in his style, but perhaps by a student.

I loved the tour of the house, but we were not allowed to take photographs. Ceilings were impressive. The ceilings were of carved chestnut, used in part because termites do not like that wood.

I was particularly impressed with some of the mahogany sets of drawers. The detailed trim was excellent. In some there was some ivory tigers face. In one was the upper figure of a woman with ivory breasts.

There was a small fan collection in one room that caught my eye. particular memorable was a scene on a fan of woman and child walking with a woodsman who carried and interestingly shaped fan.

One room was a religious collection of interesting statuary including bones, teeth and hair of Saints from the Vatican. Here was an ivory Christ and one of Mary.

A tapestry room held robes used in 1759 and a Bible from 1763. Here the ceiling was of chestnut.

The entrance room included some paintings of cherubs. In one two small cherubs were holding down a duck. The duck did not seem to be cooperating.
LIBRARY

In the 1950's this library was assembled It was incredible. 3.500 rare books. What caught my eye too were the original plates for publishing prints of Vasco de Gama's life. In this library is 2 volumes of the 1817 manuscript of the "Lusiads" by Louis de Camoes which deals with this explorers first expedition.
The guide enjoyed showing us the hidden ladder in a section of wood trim that folded back like a secret door. This gave access to the upper shelves.

FOUR SEASONS ROOM

Here there were interesting large 18th century paintings of each of the Four seasons. A woman sat in each of them with a surreal personified season in the form of her guest, formed from plantings of that season. It seemed a very modern sort of art for its day.

BLUE CHINA ROOM

Here a cupboard with drawers was open on top to display this blue china. Our guide explained that it was not used, but simply displayed as a symbol of their wealth.

The house itself only had one fireplace because it was used as an unheated summer house. until the 19th century.

There was a hand worked dining room carpet.
It was a grand palace!

As well as an overall grand look, the details were also interesting. Modern architecture has few details. It is all the overall grand look and details are just bland shapes of cement or steel. These building have intricate character.

Here is the family crest

Here is Elizabeth next to one section of the palace.

In the stable were these carriages as well as the stone toughs used to feed and water the horses. I was fascinated with them.

The garden in one of the most famous and beautiful in Europe. Each section of manicured bushes was in a different design and that was all green, even if the flowers were limited.