Ajuda, Palace of

   Massive Ajuda Palace, in the Ajudá section of Lisbon, incredibly never finished, is the largest former royal residence in the capital. Like so many other Portuguese palaces now open to the public or in current government use, it is actually a "working palace-museum," containing countless treasures within its royal walls. Ajuda Palace was built, beginning in 1802, to replace a wooden palace close by that had burned down. Construction endured throughout the remainder of the 19th century. Neoclassical in style, Ajuda Palace retains a somewhat forbidding, cold look, but the interior is dominated by a rich mixture of 19th-century Portuguese art that includes paintings, tapestries, ceramics, and statuary. Ajuda also features an important library, one documentary key to the history of the century during which the palace was built, with rare manuscripts and books as part of contemporary government records.

   See also Architecture.