1,000 Places to See Before You Die

by Patricia Schultz

  ÉVORA

  Alentejo, Portugal

  Every age has left its trace on Évora. Protected as a national treasure, its mansions and palaces are especially evocative when floodlit at night. Although the area has been settled for nearly 7,000 years, most of the architecture left standing after the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 is Manueline, an exuberant Portuguese style that combines the rock-solid proportions of Gothic with the harmonious scale of the Renaissance. Often likened to Florence and Seville (see pp. 203 and 250) for its lyrical grace, Évora is far more intimate and wonderfully Portuguese, with Moorish overtones in its pierced balconies, attractive whitewashed homes, and cool tiled patios.

  When the Moors were ousted in the 12th century after 450 fruitful years in residence, Évora became a favored destination of Portuguese kings and flourished as a center of learning and the arts in the 15th and 16th centuries. Most places of interest can be found in the core of the Old City, within medieval walls, including the Gothic cathedral and the 16th-century Church of dos Lóios, dedicated to São João (St. John) and famous for its azulejos, the traditional hand-painted blue-and-white tiles of Portugal. Adjacent to the church, and next to the well-preserved ruins of a 2nd-century Roman temple dedicated to Diana, is a former 15th-century baronial mansion (later a convent) that is now the Pousada dos Lóios and one of Portugal’s more gracious inns. The former refectory serves as the dining room, but in good weather, meals are enjoyed in the open courtyard of the vaulted cloister.

  Another 15th-century convent turned luxury hotel, the Convento do Espinheiro Hotel & Spa offers a countryside setting and an opulence unusual for Alentejo (its spa is the area’s finest). The convent sprawls on luxuriously landscaped grounds with a panoramic view of the city; its Divinus Restaurant is especially noted for its centuries-old wine cellar. No visit to Évora is complete without seeing the Almendres Cromlech, a mysterious, megalithic site of 96 standing stones on the hill above the city. Dating to circa 5000 B.C., it is the Portuguese counterpart to Stonehenge.

  Each corner of the Cathedral of Évora’s Gothic cloisters houses a marble statue of one of the four evangelists.

  WHERE: 86 miles/138 km southeast of Lisbon. POUSADA DOS LÓIOS: Tel 351/258-82-1751; in the U.S., 800-223-1356; www.pousadasofportugal.com. Cost: from $290 (off-peak), from $430 (peak); dinner $60. CONVENTO DO ESPINHEIRO HOTEL: Tel 351/266-788-200; www.conventodoespinheiro.com. Cost: from $200 (off-peak), from $300 (peak); dinner at Divinus $80. BEST TIMES: Apr–May and Sep–Oct for nice weather and fewer crowds; last 10 days of Jun for the Feira de São João, a fair dedicated to the city’s patron saint.

  Sylvan Setting for a Pleasure Palace

  BUSSACO FOREST

  Beiras, Portugal

  The secluded Bussaco Forest (Floresta do Bussaco) isn’t a natural forest but an enormous walled arboretum planted by Carmelite monks in the 17th century. It grew with the Portuguese empire, as exotic trees were brought in from all corners of the globe; in fact, such was its botanical splendor that a 17th-century Papal bull threatened to excommunicate anyone who tampered with the plantings. After religious orders were suppressed in the 19th century, King Carlos I commissioned a summer pleasure palace to be built in the midst of the 250-acre wood. The result is an extravagant pastiche of pinnacles, turrets, and arched windows, with stained-glass windows, hand-painted murals and tiles, and suits of armor inside. It was the Portuguese monarch’s last hurrah: Carlos was assassinated a year after it was finished in 1907. His son used the palace before fleeing to England after his 1910 abdication. Today it is the 64-room Palace Hotel do Bussaco, one of Europe’s most special hotels, a turn-of-the-century jewel of romance in the neo-Manueline style. It is also a good base for exploring the romantic city of Coimbra nearby.

  Seat of Portugal’s oldest university, established in 1290, the streets of Coimbra are filled with students wearing their traditional ceremonial black capes. The city is renowned for its own strain of fado (Portugal’s often plaintive popular folk music) sung by men (unlike in Lisbon, where it is sung by women; see next page). It is best heard at club àCapella, housed in an old chapel in the Jewish Quarter. Coimbra’s own luxury hotel, the late Gothic-Renaissance Quinta das Lágrimas (Estate of Tears), occupies a sylvan enclave just outside the city walls. Long a retreat of kings and generals, it is a sumptuous historic country palace with a state-of-the-art spa, well-known restaurant, and lovingly landscaped gardens.

  WHERE: 137 miles/220 km north of Lisbon. PALACE HOTEL DO BUSSACO: Tel 351/231-937-970; www.almeidahotels.com. Cost: from $180 (off-peak), from $245 (peak). ÀCAPELLA: Tel 351/239-833-985; www.acapella.com.pt. QUINTA DAS LÁGRIMAS: Tel 351/239-802-380; www.quintadaslagrimas.pt. Cost: from $160 (off-peak), from $300 (peak). BEST TIMES: May–Sep for the gardens; Sep during Festa das Latas when the university opens.

  A Town That Belonged to the Queens of Portugal

  ÓBIDOS

  Estremadura, Portugal

  Enveloped by a Moorish wall, the tiny whitewashed village of Óbidos was deemed so lovely that it became a queen’s dowry. In 1282 King Dinis presented Queen Isabel with the fief as a wedding present, and for the next 600 years, every Portuguese monarch would do the same, perpetuating its name, Casa das Rainhas (the House of Queens), until 1834. Visitors enter this museum of a town through massive gateway arches characteristic of a medieval fortress. Cars are allowed inside the walls only to pick up or drop off hotel guests and their luggage. Cobbled steps help walkers negotiate the steep inclines between whitewashed houses framed in ancient bougainvillea vines. The ramparts of Óbidos, almost a mile of crenellated battlements, have wide walkways at the top that yield spectacular views of the town and the surrounding green countryside punctuated by large outcrops of weathered limestone.

  Óbidos’s imposing 15th-century castle was built as a fortress and converted into a royal palace in the 16th century. Now one wing has been transformed into the nine-room Pousada do Castelo, where you can be a knight for a night in one of Portugal’s most atmospheric hotels. The baronial hall is filled with suits of armor, seemingly still awaiting long-ago queens and their royal retinues. The restaurant’s simple food often includes a catch of the day from the picturesque nearby fishing village of Peniche. But you can feast on the views alone, and best of all, overnight guests have the town to themselves before the tour buses arrive and long after they depart.

  WHERE: 50 miles/80 km north of Lisbon. POUSADA DO CASTELO: Tel 351/258-82-1751; in the U.S., 800-223-1356; www.pousadasofportugal.com. Cost: from $350 (off-peak), from $490 (peak); dinner $50. BEST TIMES: May–Jun and Sep–Oct for best weather and fewer crowds; Jul for the Medieval Market.

  An Ancient Neighborhood Where History and Fado Live

  BAIRRO ALFAMA

  Lisbon, Portugal

  The Alfama is Lisbon’s most moody and evocative neighborhood. The steep streets and twisting alleyways still bear witness to the Moors who, imposing their rule on much of the Iberian Peninsula, invaded Portugal from North Africa in 711. They built a fortress on the city’s eastern hill (believed to have been occupied in pre-Roman times) where a lively settlement, now the bairro (neighborhood) of the Alfama, grew in its protective shadow. Visitors can follow the ancient paths to the Castelo de São Jorge (Castle of St. George), where King Alfonso Henriques erected a royal castle on the site of the Moorish citadel after the city was recaptured in 1147. The castle’s glory days as a royal residence lasted until 1511, when King Manuel I moved the court to the Palacio Ribeira, on the waterfront. Castelo de São Jorge was severely damaged in the 1755 earthquake, but city views from the towers and ramparts, largely rebuilt in the 1930s, are as stupendous as ever. Housed within the formidable walls of the Alfama castle and reachable only by foot, the hotel Solar do Castelo occupies an intimate 18th-century mansion with an inner courtyard and garden. The secluded, romantic lodging melds medieval with contemporary style.

  When threat of earthquakes prompted wealthy families to leave the Alfama for safer ground, it became the home of fisherm
en, sailors, and other hard-working families despite its distance from the waterfront. It was this tight-knit community that spawned and nurtured fado, the city’s signature “urban song.” Literally meaning “fate,” fado is Portugal’s most vivid art form, an expression of deep longing, usually sung with great emotion in a minor key in soaring octaves and accompanied by simple folk instruments like the Spanish guitar, mandolin, and the 12-string guittara portuguesa. Fado is most beautiful when performed live, especially at the legendary venue Parreirinha de Alfama, where top female performers pour out their hearts in an intimate tiled room full of rapt listeners. With both displays and audio recordings, the Museu do Fado traces fado’s ascent from the streets and wharves in the 19th century to its emergence as the Portuguese soul music of the 20th century, dispelling the commonplace myth that this music has Moorish roots or is akin to Spanish flamenco.

  The ancient but restored towers of Castelo de São Jorge stand on a hilltop above the city of Lisbon.

  CASTELO DE SÃO JORGE: Tel 351/218-800-620; www.castelodesaojorge.pt. SOLAR DO CASTELO: Tel 351/218-806-050; www.solardocastelo.com. Cost: from $190 (off-peak), from $390 (peak). PARREIRINHA DE ALFAMA: Tel 351/218-868-209. MUSEU DO FADO: Tel 351/218-823-470; www.museudofado.egeac.pt. BEST TIMES: Tues or Sat for Feira da Ladra (Thieves Market), a famed flea market on the edge of the Alfama.

  Awe-Inspiring Gifts

  GREAT MUSEUMS OF THREE COLLECTORS

  Lisbon, Portugal

  Spread across seven hills overlooking the Tagus River, Lisbon is Europe’s smallest capital city. It’s also one of the most alluring, with gracious architecture, broad plazas, and mesmerizing black-and-white mosaic sidewalks. Three astute collectors have further enriched the city with magnificent museums. Armenian oil tycoon Calouste Gulbenkian, who lived in Portugal after World War II, was the city’s first and most generous benefactor. When he died in 1955, he bequeathed one of the world’s greatest private art collections to his adopted country. With works ranging from sculpture, pottery, and stone carving of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to medieval illuminated manuscripts and early-20th-century Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Gulbenkian’s treasure trove is the result of 50 years of passionate collecting. The Museu Calouste Gulbenkian includes many masterpieces of European painting—such as those by Rembrandt, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Turner, and Fragonard—many purchased from the Hermitage between the world wars, when the Soviet Union needed hard currency.

  With the Berardo Collection Museum, Portuguese businessman José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo has assembled a representative collection of the most significant artistic movements from early Modernism to the present day. About 250 paintings, sculptures, and photographs include pieces by Picasso, Dalí, Duchamp, Magritte, and Pollock. The museum opened in 2007 at the Belém Cultural Center, the largest cultural complex in the country, built in the early 1990s.

  Covering a similar time frame but with a narrower focus, the Museu do Design e da Moda (Design and Fashion Museum, aka the MuDe) revels in the glories of 20th-century innovative product design and fashion. Since 2009, the museum, created by local Portuguese businessman Francisco Capelo, has occupied the stripped-down interior of a Beaux Arts former bank headquarters. It provides a striking setting for innovative furniture by Philippe Starck and the team of Charles and Ray Eames and couture masterpieces by Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent.

  MUSEUM CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN: Tel 351/217-823-000; www.museu.gulbenkian.pt. BERARDO COLLECTION MUSEUM: Tel 351/213-612-878; www.berardocollection.com. MUDE: Tel 351/218-886-117; www.mude.pt. BEST TIMES: late May–early Jun for Festas de Lisboa; Jun for Festas dos Santos Populares.

  Summer Resort of Palaces and Castles

  SINTRA

  Lisbon, Portugal

  Lord Byron had seen his fair share of the Continent when he wrote to his mother from Sintra, calling it “perhaps the most delightful [village] in Europe.” Portuguese royalty certainly agreed: Sintra was a favorite summer residence for more than 500 years. Today the same cool climate and garden setting provide an idyllic respite from the heat and bustle of Lisbon for city dwellers and visitors alike. The dramatic 8th-century ruins of a Moorish citadel, the Castelo dos Mouros, sits atop a 1,350-foot peak, offering visitors a heavenly view to the sea.

  On a hillside surrounded by a lush park, the Palácio Nacional de Pena offers the most revealing look at the vanished lifestyle of Portugese nobility. The glorious 19th-century draw-bridged Pena Palace is a pink-and-yellow fantasy of varied architectural styles. The interior has been preserved much as the royal family left it in 1910 after the declaration of the Portuguese Republic—complete with trompe l’oeil painted walls, neo-Gothic chandeliers, and 19th-century furniture.

  Within the old town, the Palácio Nacional de Sintra (Sintra Palace) is a treasured landmark. Built in the 14th century on a site once favored by Moorish rulers, this royal palace has been largely rebuilt with echoes of Moorish architecture. It’s particularly known for the magnificent glazed tiles on the walls and for the fanciful ceiling of swans in the banquet room.

  Stay in a castle of your own at the Palácio de Seteais, on the crest of a hill just outside town. Built in the 18th century by the Dutch consul to Portugal, it looks down across vineyards and orange groves to the sea mist. The name Seteais refers to the seven sighs elicited by the peace treaty signed here in 1807 that ended Napoleon’s campaign in Portugal.

  Once the site of a 16th- and 17th-century royal retreat, the Penha Longa Hotel is in a nature reserve about 3 miles south of Sintra. The 14th-century monastery and royal fountains and gardens on the grounds lend an air of history to this elegant 194-room resort, which features an 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Jr. championship-level golf course and a less demanding 9-hole course. From here it’s just 20 minutes along the coast to windswept Cabo da Roca and its lone lighthouse marking continental Europe’s westernmost point.

  Built in the 1840s by a Prussian architect, the lavish Pena Palace ranks among the most famous castles in Europe.

  WHERE: 18 miles/29 km northwest of Lisbon. CASTELO DOS MOUROS and PALÁCIO NACIONAL DE PENA: Tel 351/219-237-300; www.parquesdesintra.pt. PALÁCIO NACIONAL DE SINTRA: Tel 351/219-106-840; www.pnsintra.imc-ip.pt. HOTEL TIVOLI PALÁCIO DE SETEAIS: Tel 351/219-233-200; www.tivolihotels.com. Cost: from $240 (off-peak), from $440 (peak). PENHA LONGA HOTEL: Tel 351/219-249-011; www.penhalonga.com. Cost: from $220 (off-peak), from $290 (peak). BEST TIMES: Apr–May and Aug–Sep for nicest weather; late May–early Jul for Sintra Festival of Music and Dance.

  Pearl of the Atlantic

  MADEIRA

  Portugal

  With a subtropical climate warmed by the Gulf Stream, this volcanic island—which lies 323 miles off the coast of Africa—is Portugal’s own floating garden. The early 15th-century discovery of Madeira by Prince Henry the Navigator launched Portugal’s golden age. It was “discovered” again in the 19th century by winter-weary British vacationers who were taken by the lush, vertical landscapes; the wild terrain that had been terraced and farmed; the dark, sweet wine—and “days of perpetual June.”

  Dramatic peaks and an extensive network of signposted walking paths encourage forays into the verdant countryside. A longtime favorite hike follows the old levadas—the manmade irrigation channels that carried water from the mountaintops to the farms, fields, and villages below. The 36- by 14-mile island (70 percent of which is national park) packs more into its chaotic terrain than most areas five times its size. A serpentine drive from Ribeira Brava in the south to São Vicente in the north takes you up into the dramatic interior and over its razorback spine, and rewards you with views of Pico Ruivo—at 6,109 feet, Madeira’s highest mountain.

  More relaxing is a stroll through the rose gardens and grottoes at Quinta Palmeira, a lush landscape punctuated with tiled fountains and benches to enjoy the mesmerizing view. Madeira developed a significant wine industry in the 18th century, when it was discovered that the fortified wine improved in the hot holds of ships bound for the New World. Madeira
vintners soon figured out how to get the same effect without the wines leaving home. The best introduction to Madeira’s signature wine is a tour of the Old Blandy Wine Lodge, in the center of town, where the 17th-century St. Francis monastery was converted to a wine-aging building in 1852. Tours illuminate the unique canteiro aging system and end with a tasting of the local elixir.

  The distinguished Reid’s Palace hotel has been the undisputed queen of Funchal since opening in 1891. High on a promontory with sweeping views, Reid’s is enveloped in a fragrant riot of flowers, palms, and birds-of-paradise. The hotel’s Les Faunes restaurant is considered the best on the island, and late-afternoon high tea is an institution. Less dramatic, but full of charm, Quinta do Monte Hotel and Panoramic Gardens is nestled in the old hill town of Monte. Sitting 1,804 feet above sea level, the area provides a welcomed retreat from the busy city. The salmon-pink 19th-century manor house is decorated in the elegant traditional Madeiran style of gleaming wood floors and Persian carpets. Although connected to Funchal by the sleek teleferico cable car, Monte village boasts a famous alternate mode of transportation: a two-seat wicker toboggan guided by two men, or carreiros, down a staggeringly steep 1-mile descent.

  The exploration of Madeira helped launch Portugal’s Age of Discovery.

  WHERE: 400 miles/644 km south of Lisbon. THE OLD BLANDY WINE LODGE: Tel 351/291-740-110; www.theoldblandywinelodge.com. REID’S PALACE: Tel 351/291-717-171; in the U.S., 800-237-1236; www.reidspalace.com. Cost: from $330; dinner at Les Faunes $75, afternoon tea $35. When: Les Faunes closed Jun-Sep. QUINTA DO MONTE: Tel 351/291-724-236; www.quintadomontemadeira.com. Cost: from $125 (off-peak), from $200 (peak). BEST TIMES: Apr or May for the Flower Festival; Sep for Madeira Wine Festival; New Year’s Eve for Funchal’s Feast of St. Sylvester celebration, featuring stunning fireworks.