BUÇACO Palace

The area around the Buçaco Palace was part of a Discalced Carmelite convent established in 1628. Date from the late 17th century a series of chapels with representations of a Via Crucis in the garden. Part of the convent, including the church with Baroque altarpieces, is still preserved beside the palace. At the entrance of the old convent, there is a plaque to the Battle of Bussaco which commemorates the fact that Viscount Wellington, who later became the Duke of Wellington, spent the night in the convent after the battle on 27 September 1810. The Carmelites left Buçaco in 1834 century following the dissolution of the monasteries in Portugal. Late in the century there were plans to turn the ancient convent into a royal residence, being a luxurious hotel nowadays. The Palace Hotel of Buçaco was built between 1888 and 1907. The first architect was the Italian Luigi Manini (1848-1936), who designed a Romantic palace in Neo-Manueline style, evoking the 16th-century architectural style that characterised the peak of the Portuguese Age of Discovery.
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