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Work began on the massive palace and monastery at Mafra in 1717 after
Joao V vowed to build a monastery in gratitude for the birth of an
heir. It was a modest building at first, intended to house a small
number of monks, but as more ships arrived in Portugal bringing more
wealth from the New World, more extravagant plans were made. Altogether
52,000 men worked on the building which, when finished, could cater for
330 friars, housed a royal place and one of Europe’s finest libraries
with some 40,000 volumes. Celebrations lasted for eight days when the
Basilica was consecrated on the Kings 41st birthday. Joao V died in
Lisbon on July 31 1750.
Successive monarchs treated
the palace as a hunting lodge. When the family left for exile in Brazil
in 1807, they took the bulk of the furniture with them. As troops
assembled to stem Napoleon's invasion, Mafra became a military base and
the monastery a barracks.
Nowadays, this building ensemble is partially under IPPAR's rule which
is developing a recovery and improvement Programme, after a previous
study carried out between 1994 and 1997. A top priority has been the
recovery of the historical organs.
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