Portugal Is Home to These 17 Inspiring Buildings

, Commissioned by King John I, the monastery at Batalha (Portuguese for “battle”) was built to commemorate the victory of the Portuguese over the Spanish in 1385. Of the master builders involved it was the English architect Master Huguet who made the biggest impact, being instrumental in turning the monastery into the most impressive example of Gothic architecture in the entire Iberian region. He raised the nave and altered the proportions of the church in a style reminiscent of the English Early Perpendicular. The Founders’ Chapel in particular is a monument to his genius. The star vault of the cupola, which spans 62 feet (19 m), was a daring achievement and a highly innovative structure for its time. It was completed in 1434.

Under Manuel I, construction of seven chapels began. They were intended to house the remains of all the members of the Aviz dynasty, but they were never finished—the massive, carved-stone pillars that would have supported the vaulted ceiling are in place, but the chapels are open to the sky. Batalha, with its stone pillars, sculptures, and gargoyles, was highly influential in architectural terms. It kickstarted the style now known as Portuguese Gothic, which began at Batalha and matured in the later Manueline style as exemplified at Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, built a century later. (Michael DaCosta)

Originally called the Hieronymites Monastery, Jerónimos was commissioned in the 16th century by King Manuel I in Belém, on the site of the Santa Maria chapel, a popular place of worship among the seafaring community that was originally built at the behest of Manuel’s ancestor Henry the Navigator. It was intended to be a burial monument for the Portuguese royal lineage. However, its purpose was changed to honor the return of explorer Vasco de Gama from India, who prayed at the chapel on the eve of his epic journey and whose tomb is one of the monastery’s historical monuments.

Diogo Boitac designed the monastery, and he was succeeded in 1517 by João de Castilho (c. 1475–1552). At that time Belém was the main port of Lisbon, and Portugal was arguably the richest country in the world. The workmanship on its highly detailed facades and interiors is masterful. The architect Diogo de Torralva resumed construction in 1550, adding the main chapel, the choir, and completing two stories of monastery. Jérôme de Rouen continued his work from 1571. Its style is a synthesis of Late Gothic with Spanish Plateresque, shot through with nautical references, and can be described as Manueline. Eminent sculptors such as Costa Mota and Nicolau Chanterene also made contributions to the project. The vast ornate building has chapels, cloisters, a church, and the tombs of many Portuguese monarchs. The monastery also houses the remains of the poets Luis de Camões—the Portuguese Shakespeare—and Fernando Pessoa. Jerónimos features designs, such as the two-story cloister, that were seen as daring at the time. It is considered to be the best example of Manueline period architecture in the world. (Michael DaCosta)

Designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura, the soccer stadium at Braga was the architect’s largest built project when it was completed, in 2003, and secured his international reputation as an architect capable of transforming the environment. Portugal was awarded the rights to Euro 2004 soccer championship in 1999 when a promise of seven new and three rebuilt stadiums fought off competition from Spain. Although the Braga stadium was host to only two qualifying matches, it is the architectural pièce de resistance of the whole scheme.

One of Souto de Moura’s most celebrated projects is the house at Trevessa do Souto (1998) in which he reshaped the terraced landscape to allow the building to nestle into a granite outcrop. At Braga he revisited the concept, but on an enormous scale. A series of controlled explosions blasted into the Monte Castro quarry to form a 98-foot-high (30 m) fissure, which allows the structure to literally “grow” out from the rock face.

Dispensing with the amphitheater iconography of stadium design, Souto de Moura has eliminated seating behind the goals: the northwest end housing a giant screen and the southeast a desolate rock wall—a natural sound amplifier for the chanting crowds. Shafts bring light into the circulation areas and rise to a panoramic viewing platform at roof level.

Like the Baroque cathedral that overlooks Braga, the material and sensual permanence of the stadium looks down on the town. It is a shrine not to religion but to the holy game of soccer. (Jennifer Hudson)

Coimbra is better known for the magnificent library of its university, by far the oldest in Portugal, than for architectural boldness. Yet there are exceptions, such as the subtle conversion of the west wing of the former Arts College into the Visual Arts Center. It was designed by local architect, and graduate from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Oporto, João Mendes Ribeiro, whose architecture shows the influence of other disciplines. Mendes Ribeiro’s approach to the Visual Arts Center was determined yet subtle, as he aimed to evoke archaeological memory while still retaining the city’s modern image. Externally, the Visual Arts Center (completed in 2003) is diplomatic, and the plainness of Mendes Ribeiro’s design aims for a peaceful coexistence between past and present. Inside, existing archaeological structures remained untouched and are preserved underneath the floor, but the new areas are as modern as possible. At ground level is a flexible exhibition space with moving partitions; gossamer metal stairs lead to the upper floor that has an imposing dividing wall. On one side of the wall lie laboratories, archives, and assembly rooms, while exhibition rooms, a library, and office spaces occupy the other. Mendes Ribeiro’s clear, straightforward contemporary language creates a continuum between the old and the new. (Yves Nacher)

Portugal, after the fall of António de Oliveira Salazar and a subsequent return to democracy, was no longer the country of Álvaro Siza’s Boa Nova Tea House or of the Leça Swimming Pools. In a country where the Communist Party was now a key force, the question of housing a population still widely living in shameful conditions was a critical issue. Dwellers were to have a say in the construction of their future homes.

Évora—the outlying regional capital of an underdeveloped rural area—entrusted Álvaro Siza—one of the country‘s finest architects—with the task of designing a vast urban development scheme on the site of former estates expropriated from major landowners as a result of land reform. Under the master plan, which included integrating illegal housing, 1,200 housing units were built. To keep construction costs low, a degree of standardization was necessary, although some diversity in the one or two-story houses was achieved, and the streets became an extension of the houses themselves.

Initially intended for a low-income population, the Quinta da Malagueira eventually became a more middle-class neighborhood, reflecting the increased standard of living in Portugal. Architects and students from across the world flocked to gaze at this atypical work, which was completed in 1977. Even its creator returned to have a house built there for himself. (Yves Nacher)

Ilhavo is a small fishing town on the coast of central Portugal. For centuries it was home to the so-called White Fleet, the Portuguese fishing boats that used to cruise in the North Atlantic for six months of the year, fishing for cod off the Newfoundland coast.

In the early 1970s, a museum was erected to pay tribute to the local fishermen who had given their lives to this harsh industry. Nearly 30 years later, the town decided to expand and remodel the existing building to give a new impetus to its collection of boats and maritime paraphernalia. ARX Portugal won the competition for the project with an imaginative proposal that combined a boldness of space and materials with sensuality. Doubled in size and completed in 2002, the new museum literally engulfs the original construction under saw-toothed roofing that is reminiscent of the ship sails beyond the suburban landscape. New and old spaces are distributed around an inner courtyard, the central pool of which reflects sunlight throughout the interior, underlining water as the common theme of the scheme. Out of the pool rises a black slate–clad tower, which is used for temporary exhibitions. A palette of white (plaster), black (slate), and gray (zinc) tones creates a fluid connection between the inner and outer spaces. The scale of the overall design helps to integrate the museum into the surrounding neighborhood, making it part of a clear urban strategy. With its steel and glass display cases, the graphic lettering on the facade, and the imposing presence of the new black tower floating on water, ARX skillfully demonstrate that their name is well-deserved: ARX—ARchiteXture (architecture, text, texture). (Yves Nacher)

This striking structure located in Lisbon was created by Portuguese-French structural engineer Raul Mesnier de Ponsard. Its iron form is rather like a scaled-down version of the Eiffel Tower but with more emphasis on function than form. The Santa Justa Lift (Elevador de Santa Justa), also known as the Carmo, was built in 1902 to transport people and commerce between upper and lower downtown Lisbon. The original steam-powered traction engine was replaced by an electrical one five years after its inauguration.

The structure is 147 feet (45 m) high and features two lifts, each with a 25 passenger capacity, that counterbalance one another. A complicated excavation project was required in order to build a tunnel for the elevator. To save costs the decorative top of the Santa Justa was never constructed. Instead, it was replaced by a simple observation deck with superb views of the south Pombal district of Lisbon.

The use of iron as the primary structural material liberated the need for solid walls, allowing elegant windowed elevations to soar upward on delicate supports, giving views out over the surrounding area. Iron also proclaimed a desire for the modern and an escape from the supposed restriction of labor-intensive stone or marble. The delight of this building is that it accommodates motion as its core purpose, a paradox that would not have gone unnoticed by its creator. The slim silhouette of the structure is also an ingenious response to its immediate context, a heavily built-up area of the city. That historical references could still be articulated so finely using this dazzling new technology at the time would have seemed miraculous to De Ponsard’s contemporaries.

The lift was made an official national Portuguese monument in 2002. Officially, it is also part of CARRIS, the Lisbon suburban public transport service. (Michael DaCosta)

Around 1900, it was not uncommon for those Portuguese who had made fortunes in the colonies to return to Portugal with the ambition of flaunting their new wealth by commissioning extravagant “arriviste” constructions. This structure is a fine example of this trend, which was strongly supported by the teaching of architecture as one of the fine arts in the schools of Lisbon and Porto. It was originally commissioned by businessman José Maria Moreira Marques in 1910 as a luxurious cosmopolitan family house with spacious gardens. The house was among the first in Lisbon to have an elevator, and his children even had a specially designed gymnasium. Upon its completion in 1914 ,the project was immediately awarded the prestigious Valmor architecture prize. In 1950 the house was sold to Lisbon City Council, and in 1954 it became the headquarters building of the Lisbon Metro.

Due to the pristine condition of its original interiors, visiting the building is like stepping back in time. The entire building is in working order, a testament indeed to the high quality of its decorative Art Nouveau apparel and its turn-of-the-century workmanship. Every room boasts ornately decorated cornices and other plaster objects. Some have been adorned with gold leaf. The rooms originally for the entertainment of guests still retain their eclectic character and details, such as purpose-made glass vitrines and dumbwaiters, although these days the rooms are used as offices.

Some of the collection of 19th-century works owned by the Lisbon Metro are housed in the building. In fact, a connection with art and culture seems to be an important factor for the Lisbon Metro—numerous public art commissions may be viewed in many of the Lisbon metro stations. (Michael DaCosta)

Álvaro Siza’s Portugal Pavilion was the centerpiece of the 1998 Lisbon EXPO, which had “oceans” as its theme. The pavilion features two large, concrete, partly tiled buildings connected by a large plaza that is covered by a vast, curved concrete roof like a huge sail or flag. The massive columns on the building seem to hint at the political architectural style that was popular during the Portuguese fascist dictatorship prior to the 1974 revolution.

The structure is poetic and breathtaking in its simplicity. Unlike many architects of international repute, the modus operandi of Siza’s approach is to be creatively sensitive while focusing on the surroundings or physical context of the project. Hence, the inclusion of a small grove of olive trees in one of the building‘s courtyards in reference to Olivais, the name of the city district that is home to EXPO. As a result, the Portugal Pavilion complements the rest of the area, while also keeping in touch with the EXPO theme. The view of the river through the pavilion frames the river vista into a gargantuan photograph, a giant entrance to the river and the city at one and the same time. (Michael DaCosta)

The Gare do Oriente transport terminus by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was commissioned by the city of Lisbon in 1993, after an international closed competition. It was intended to serve the great number of visitors expected for the Lisbon EXPO in 1998 and then act as a new city center hub. This project was part of Portugal’s endeavor to rebrand itself as a vibrant modern nation.

In fact Oriente acts as a form of gateway between Lisbon and EXPO. The initial lofty aims for the project, as a catalyst for a new civic center, did not immediately materialize. However, the place is always full of people because, in addition to being a transport terminus, it hosts fairs in its main foyer and is adjacent to a major shopping center, concert halls, and exhibition spaces.

The huge structure has three self-contained parts and is divided into four levels. The uppermost level carries the platforms, the middle levels have retail outlets and links to the shopping center, and the lower level has more connections to metro and bus terminii; it then emerges at the surface to serve as an entrance to EXPO city. Oriente displays the trademark Calatrava organic theme: seen from above, the main vaulted body of the train station resembles the huge concrete skeletal form of a marine animal, while the roof canopy is like a field of gigantic steel palms. Calatrava may have wanted to make an architectural reference to the oceanic theme of the 1998 EXPO.

Anyone passing through the station is struck by its immense scale and intricate nature. It possesses an elegant, cathedral-like atmosphere. Due to the theatrical lighting scheme of the building it has an especially spectacular impact on the Lisbon skyline when darkness falls. (Michael DaCosta)

Originally intended as a Capuchin monastery, the Royal Palace at Mafra evolved into a grand building project under King John V. It was intended to be John V’s Versailles, and a rival to Spain’s Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The chief architect was Johann Friedrich Ludwig, known as Ludovice. He had worked in Italy designing church altars and was influenced by the sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini and the architect Francesco Borromini. The limestone facade is 722 feet (220 m) long, with square towers at each end sporting squat, Byzantine-style domes. The front of the basilica occupies the center of the facade, pilastered in marble with niches for 58 marble statues. Two immense, white marble bell towers reach 223 feet (68 m), each containing 48 bells. These soaring towers and facade are reminiscent of Rome’s Sant’ Agnese in Agone by Borromini. The basilica’s lavish interior is wrought in rose and white marble. Its barrel-vaulted roof rests on fluted Corinthian columns. Carved jasper altarpieces grace the side chapels, and marble statues fill the side aisles. Behind the church is a massive courtyard around which there are more buildings, including a huge library with rose, gray, and white marble-tiled floors and barrel-vaulted white marble ceilings. Completed in 1730, this is the largest palace in Europe and the most sumptuous Baroque building in the world. (Mary Cooch)

Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1992, Álvaro Siza is a central figure of the “Oporto School”—indeed, his work embodies a theoretical, methodological, and formal synthesis of the architectural movement. Siza began his career in the shadow of his masters (including Fernando Távora) and in collaborative works. The Casa de Chá (Tea House) in the outskirts of Oporto, completed in 1963, was the project that first got him noticed.

A stone’s throw north of the future site of his Leça Swimming Pools, Siza’s Casa de Chá is a bold prefiguration of the architect’s radical, intimate, and restrained relationship with space. Nestled in the rocky shoreline, away from the main road and at the foot of a lighthouse, this building has an organic appearance, resembling a stretched animal. In contrast, its almost horizontal roof appears to be an extension of the sea surface, with which it seems to merge. The alternating white walls, picture windows, and wooden structures effectively transcend the surroundings with their superlative geometry.

The interior’s fake-Taliesin cozy nooks and snug mezzanines provide a contrast to the sea vista beyond, as waves break in relentless bursts of foam at visitors’ feet. Had the Casa de Chá been completed in 1959, Alfred Hitchcock might have been tempted to use this location for scenes such as the escape in North By Northwest, with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. (Yves Nacher)

Only a few years after his first built work, the Casa de Chá restaurant at Matosinhos, attracted a lot of attention, Álvaro Siza returned almost to the same spot—just a little further south along the beachfront—to create seawater swimming pools. The site was a stretch of rocky beach below the promenade, overlooked by freighters just offshore, heading for nearby Oporto. Constrained by a limited budget, Siza transcended these impediments.

A pedestrian ramp slopes gently down from street level, which is also that of the copper roof stretched above the changing facilities and the bar, so the facilities do not obstruct the seaward view. Siza designed a canyon of concrete walls open to the sky; the visitor moves into a strange environment where the sea can be heard pounding below but at first cannot be seen. The sea is then dramatically revealed through a series of breaches carefully designed as peepholes. Exiting from this labyrinth onto the beach, the visitor finds a vista of natural rocks and low concrete walls containing a sequence of pools, allowing safe swimming in the seawater. For the bather, water, sand, stone, and concrete are an experience of the natural merged with the artificial. The experience of these pools, completed in 1966, is truly singular, with sunlight glancing off the pool surfaces and the eye-catching backdrop of Siza’s concrete complex. (Yves Nacher)

Álvaro Siza became a leading advocate of the “critical regionalism” movement, a philosophy developed while he attended the Oporto school of architecture. Essentially, his works stress the importance of combining local and global architectural trends in a balanced way.

Completed in 1991, Siza’s kindergarten in Penafiel, a quaint city northeast of Oporto, embodies this philosophy. Siza gained most of his international renown from large-scale, award-winning public projects. This small-scale work, however, demonstrates that his approach to architecture has a global application. Materials are used to create a strong tension in the building, such as between the expanses of angular white-washed concrete and the curved traditional terra-cotta roof tiles typical of northern Portugal. Sensitivity to his local environs is a Siza leitmotif.

The kindergarten interiors have been designed as informal modern workshops, as opposed to formal teaching rooms, and they somehow manage to retain a rural handicraft feel. The scale of the space was designed from the perspective of the child so that some areas possess very low ceilings, small doors, and narrow corridors. There is ample natural light, and the windows and doorways seem to frame views photographically, leading the eye through interior spaces to the outside world. (Michael DaCosta)

This distinctive Art Deco building in Porto takes the car as its theme. On the facade of Passos Manuel, two strong vertical lines mark the levels of three parking lot floors like a giant harness. The lines seem to disappear into the building on the fourth floor and through the garage entrance. The impressive silhouette of the building is testimony to Arq Mario de Abreu’s skill as a draftsman.

When it first opened in 1938, the building housed a variety of offices, workshops, studios, and a car showroom as well as the garage. There was also a famous brothel on the very top floor of the building.

These days the auto workshops and “red lights” have disappeared, but, as a result of regional political rationalism and the Portuguese love affair with the motor car, the garage has been meticulously preserved. In 2001, a local cultural association led by photographer Daniel Pires converted the derelict top floors of the building into a contemporary culture space called Maus Habitos (“Bad Habits”). Culture breathed new life into the building and the surrounding area, and it soon featured exhibition spaces, studios, a café, a bar, a nightclub, and a performance space. (Michael DaCosta)

When the Portuguese city of Porto was named joint European Capital of Culture with Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 2001, it realized that it needed a landmark cultural building at the center of its activities. The Casa da Música, although it only appeared four years later, was the result.

The Portuguese chose a Dutch architect to mastermind their new icon. Rem Koolhaas created a homage to music in a rich, sculptural, highly efficient but unusual structure. The 180-foot-tall (55 m) project was built on a travertine plaza just across from the Rotunda da Boavista, one of the city‘s main traffic centers. The white concrete load-carrying shell houses a main 1,300-seat concert hall enclosed at both ends by corrugated glass to aid acoustics and light, as well as a 350-seat concert hall, rehearsal rooms, and recording studios for the Porto National Orchestra. Koolhaas was initially determined to break with the tradition of a “shoe-box”–shaped concert hall, but he admitted defeat when faced with the acoustics evidence from other international concert venues. Assisting the acoustics, the main concert hall’s walls are of plywood, the wooden markings of which are enhanced by embossed gold leaf. The boxy, asymmetric building also features a terrace carved out of the sloping roofline, while a huge cut-out in the concrete skin connects the building to the rest of the urban landscape. It is a building for—and in touch with—its city. (David Taylor)

In 1838 the German prince Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg Gotha acquired the ruins of the Pena Monastery in Sintra at auction. At the time he had the intention of restoring the building to its original glory. However, perhaps influenced by an illicit affair, he changed his plans and in 1840 commissioned the German engineer Baron von Eschwege to build a country residence and grounds. The architect proposed radical designs for an awe-inspiring new palace and gardens at Pena that were happily accepted by the prince.

The turreted building sits unevenly across giant rocks on a mountaintop 18 miles (30 km) from Lisbon. It possesses an awkward yet charming style. The colorful palace is influenced by a dizzying array of architectural styles: Bavarian, Romantic, Gothic, and Moorish are the principal influences, but there are Renaissance details, too, in the form of the original 16th-century chapel by master builder Diogo Boitoc and sculptor Nicolau Chanterene, both of whom worked on the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon. When finished, the building was mainly used as the summer residence of the royal family. The palace is full of precious objects, collections, and works of art.

The landscaped palace gardens are spectacular, and there are excellent views of the Sintra mountains. The original ornamental ponds, bird fountains, groves of exotic trees, and expanses of wild flowers all remain intact. Later, Prince Ferdinand was to build a more modest chalet in the grounds of the palace for his second wife, the Countess of Edla, who also contributed ideas for the gardens. She inherited the estate in 1885 when the prince died, just as the palace was completed. She later sold it to the state. In 1910 Palacio da Pena (Palace of Pena) was listed as a Portuguese National Monument, and in 1995 the town of Sintra was listed as a World Heritage Site. (Michael DaCosta)