Mafra Portugal...Not Texas

A Surfing Town and Another Palace

On Sunday we took another road trip, due to the generosity of our friends with a car. Boy, we are going to miss them! [And I mean them, not their car.] Anyway, they wanted to go to Ericeira. We were up for anything! Before our trip, I did a little research and found another palace a short distance from Ericeira on our route. So we visited both.

Ericeira

We traveled north for 45 minutes along an inland route. Unfortunately, there isn’t a road that permits you to drive directly up the coast…such a route just doesn’t exist. But we quickly found a parking space on the street and were off in search of the beach. You see today Ericeira is Ericeira because of its beaches. It is a surfer’s paradise. In fact, it is designated as the only World Surfing Reserve in Europe.

Just happened to catch this boy diving into the water…that will wake you up!

With a small village and a population of just over 11,000, there is not much for a tourist to do in Ericeira other than walk along the beach, dip your toes in the icy water, and eat. Only one in our party did all three…the rest of us kept our toes dry as we searched Google for the best restaurant.

Octopus with sausage, grilled peppers, potatoes, sundried tomatoes, and avocado.

We had a lovely, inexpensive lunch. An appetizer of grilled Padron peppers was shared as we enjoyed a bottle of wine and a SuperBock. (I prefer Sagres but I have found like the Coke-Pepsi thing in the States, most restaurants in Portugal are either a Sagres establishment or a SuperBock establishment…thus I was forced to drink wine.) Two in our party had octopus, one had salmon and I enjoyed a vegetarian curry. The fish eaters each took home leftovers and the bill came to 46€/couple with tip.

A pedestrian plaza in Ericeira packed with Sunday diners on a sunny day.

We walked along narrow cobblestone streets passing houses with tiled facades or painted white with blue trim (a la Greece). We stopped at a few shops and kiosks along the street and picked up a few items to supplement our already robust clothing inventory. We then loaded our packages in the trunk and headed to Mafra.

Once again, Denise leads the way to the Palace

The Palace of Mafra

At 40,000 square meters (430,550 square feet) the building is large enough to warrant its many names: Palácio Nacional de Mafra Palace-Convent of Mafra, Royal Building of Mafra, etc. There are two very different stories about the origins of this building. The official one is that King João V built it to fulfill a vow he made, to be blessed with an heir from his marriage to Maria Ana of Austria. Construction began shortly after the birth of their first child. The unofficial origin story is that he was jealous of the Palace of Versailles, and given the incredible riches being provided by slave labor in Brazil (gold and diamonds), he decided to build a hunting lodge/convent in Mafra.

One dead animal head on a wall is too much for me. This room even had a chandelier made out of his trophies.

What started as a convent for 13 friars grew to house 330. The place to retreat for a bit of hunting became a second summer home for the royal family. The basilica and the convent were inaugurated on the King's 41st birthday 13 years after construction began. However, the building continued until 1755 when workers were reassigned to Lisbon after the earthquake. Not so fun fact: at least 1383 construction workers died while building. Here are some other interesting facts:

• 1200 rooms;

• 4700 windows and doors;

• 156 stairways;

• 40,000 volumes in the largest room a library of 82 square meters (893 square feet);

• The basilica houses 114 bells and six organs.

I love the dome!

The Basilica

The palace is rather cold and austere. If I had to choose, I would prefer to live in Pena Palace. But the Basilica is really quite something. Around the primary cathedral are smaller chapels, each with carved wooden reliefs painted white…

and on all four corners of each chapel enormous sculptures.

If you visit the palace be sure to take the time to look at the smaller clay models from which these were sculpted.

If you visit the Palace of Mafra, you’ll want to plan at least two hours. Typically, entry to the Basilica is free while palace admission is 6€. However, we paid nothing as Portuguese residents are admitted free on Sundays.

Note: lots more photos on my Facebook page. Feel free to share. And if you are not familiar with Marfa Texas look it up. We discovered it during our RV adventures en route to Big Bend National Park. It is a town of approximately 1800 known for the Marfa lights and minimalist art. Both seemed weird to us.