Gardens of the National Palace of Queluz

The National Palace of Queluz and its historical gardens represent one of Portugal’s most notable examples of the harmonious interconnection between landscaping and palatial architecture. They illustrate the ambiences and daily lives of the Royal Family and the Portuguese court in the second half of the 18th and early part of the 19th centuries while simultaneously revealing the developments and trends in tastes over the period marked by the baroque, rococo and neoclassical styles and containing moments of great historical relevance in the transition from the Ancien Regime to Liberalism.
The different green spaces form a unit with the building, whose facades are turned towards the upper gardens in the French fashion (Pênsil and Malta), extending past delicate parterres de broderie lined by boxwood hedges. The statues, inspired on classical mythology, ornament and punctuate the main axes and animate these decorative gardens. The striking set of stone and lead sculptures are of Italian and British origin with the latter the work of the London artist John Cheere. These gardens are divided off from those adjacent as well as from the surrounding woods and fields by stone balustrades adorned with vases and statues. From the portico irradiates a set of interconnected avenues that collectively weave a complex pattern, with a geometrical layout and where the cross sections feature lakes and fountains incorporating water games. Of particular note is the lake designed in 1764 by the French master Jean-Baptiste Robillion in the shape of a starred octagon (Medallions Lake) but among others.