Mafra National Palace and Convent

Mafra National Palace and Convent
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The Palacio Nacional de Mafra Convent, located in the municipality of Mafra, Lisbon district, Portugal
About 25 kilometers from Lisbon, is in a palace and monastery monumental Baroque style. It was started in 1717 by the initiative of John V of Portugal, because of a promise he had made in the case of the Queen D. Mary Anne of Austria gave her offspring.

Palácio Nacional de Mafra

In 1715 was founded the Convent of Our Lady and St. Anthony of Mafra, who belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Arrábida. Originated in a community Hospice of the Holy Spirit. In 1730, the holy Basilica of Our Lady and St Anthony, near Mafra, was there transferred the aforesaid community. Between 1771 and 1791, for a brief of Clement XIV in July 4, 1770, at the request of the Marquis of Pombal, was occupied by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, the Franciscans of the Province of Arrábida left the Convent of Mafra in May 1771. In 1791, the Canons Regular of St. Augustine left the building Mafra.

Library_of_the_Convent_of_Mafra

The greatest treasure of Mafra is your library, with marble floors, bookshelves in Rococo style and a collection of over 36,000 books with leather bindings etched gold, thanks to the action of the Franciscan Order, including a second edition of The Lusiads Luís de Camões. It covers areas of study as diverse as medicine, pharmacy, history, geography and travel, philosophy and theology, canon law and civil law, mathematics, natural history, and literature sermonária. Situated at the bottom of the second floor is the star of the palace, rivaling in grandeur with the Library of the Abbey of Melk, Austria. Caetano constructed by Manuel de Sousa is 88 m long, 9.5 wide and 13 high. The floor is covered with magnificent marble pink, gray and white. The wooden shelves Rococo, located in two lateral rows, separated by a balcony containing thousands of leather-bound volumes, witnessing the extent of western knowledge of the XIVth century.

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