Beau Séjour Palace

This is a palatial summer building whose landscape design, decisive for its location and construction, was transformed with the urbanisation of Estrada de Benfica. As we can also perceive in the Monserrate Palace, in Sintra, the pavilion-like character, conferred by the horizontality, the spatial symmetry and transparency of the space, had its origins in the original rural structure of Ribeira de Alcântara’s valley and Monsanto hill. Inside, we can observe several moments of artistic intervention, with particular focus arising from the work of the three Bordalo Pinheiro brothers, with ceiling canvases, scenographic panels in faience from Sociedade Fabril das Caldas, and stained glass. Today, the complementarity with the romantic garden, which elevates and distances the building from the road, gives new meaning to the enjoyment of this space as an archive and a place of study about Lisbon.