So you´re in Lisbon for a few days (or if you´re as lucky as me you even live here) and you´ve read all about the day trips you can take to Sintra or Cascais (I wrote a guide here too), but you want to try something different, with fewer tourists and niche enough to brag about it at your next dinner party (joking, not joking). Incoming: Mafra with its palace / convent / stunning library. It´s a mere 40 minutes away from Lisbon by car, and totally worth your time. I do really recommend a car because in this article I´ll take you not just to the city of Mafra but also to the tiny village of Aldeia da Mata Pequena, a quaint little “village” where you´ll want to pop in for a quick stroll and a delicious dinner. Ready to read what there´s to do in Mafra? Let´s go!
Grab a Fradinho at the Pasteleria Fradinho
First thing´s first. You´ll need some energy for the day, so we need to put something in your belly – ideally a fradinho. The fradinho (little friar) is the typical pastry of Mafra. Because in Portugal each city seems to have its own traditional pastry, and I find that absolutely adorable. So grab one at Pasteleria Fradinho (Praça da República 28, 2640-595 Mafra) and enjoy it with a cup of coffee. The fradinho is a small tart with a white bean and ground almond filling combined with egg yolks and sugar syrup, moist inside and crisp outside, which is the classic conventual style and might make you think it´s ancient, or at least developed by nuns, as these sweets often are. Except this one wasn´t. It was developed in the 1980s by a pastry chef named Francisco Fradinho. A bit anti-climatic story-wise but very yum still!
Visit the Mafra National Palace
Now that you´ve had a coffee and a fradinho let´s start our tour. Free as part of the 52 days of free state museums (read more about it in Portuguese here) if you´re a resident in Portugal, or 15€ for a regular ticket, the Mafra National Palace is open from 09:30 to 17:30 with the last allowed entrance at 16:30.
The palace is huge, and I mean huge. It has over 800 rooms (according to the staff, though online I see numbers as high as 1200!), though obviously not all of them open to the public, 156 staircases (you will only have to climb two though!), over 4700 doors and windows, and a limestone façade of over 220m. But I am glad to say that especially if you go during a weekday there´s high chances you´ll be almost alone in most rooms of the palace, as the crowds are thin. So take your time to explore this gorgeous national monument whose build commenced in 1717 at the command of King João V who had vouched to build a convent if God blessed him and his wife Queen Maria with an heir – which he did, as such Infanta Barbara being born.
The initial design was supposed to serve just 13 Capuchin friars, but when gold and diamonds from Brazil began flooding into Lisbon, the king dramatically expanded his plans into a sumptuous palace with a friary for around 300 friars. As such, the architectural style is considered to be Barroco Joanino (from King João), and some of the furniture in the palace, like the royal bed that the rulers shared (quite uncommonly at the time) bear the name Estilo Dona Maria (from D. Maria I).
While there you can´t miss the basilica consisting of six organs, unique worldwide, plus two carillons totalling 114 bells. As such, there are pieces of music written specifically for the six organs that can only be heard there, as if the whole palace needed even more magic surrounding it. Lord Byron called them the most beautiful he’d ever seen. But this is not even the highlight, if you´ll believe it…
Marvel at Mafra´s National Palace Library
Still part of the palace, lies one of the world´s most beautiful and unique libraries. And if I am being completely honest, that´s why I am here in the first place. The entrance to the library is made through the palace and costs nothing extra, but I really feel like mentioning this separately here.
The library is the largest 18th century library located in a single room, measuring 1000 square meters and holding about 30.000 volumes of books embodying the main themes of the Enlightenment, the age of reason and science. The bookshelves were installed in 1776 but the books were only placed in them in 1791! The organisation if the books done in the early 19th century by Friar João de Santa Ana remains until this day.
What makes it unique however, is that it is protected by a colony of three types of bats. You read that right, bats. The brown big-eared bat, the pipistrellus bat and the serotine bat are stored in little drawers underneath the books and let out at night to consume the insects that would ptherwise feed on wood and the actual books! Talk about superhero bats!
And there´s quite a lot to protect, as part of the inventory of the library counts with the first Latin translation of the Quran from 1543, a polyglot bible in seven languages (1514) and a lot of other gems, which for obvious reasons you can´t leaf through. You can however marvel at the beauty of this library that seems straight out of a fairytale (maybe Beauty and the Beast?).
Visit the Music Museum
The Music Museum seems to be a recent addition to the National Palace of Mafra. I write this as I do not remember it from the last time I was there, though it is part of the same set of buildings (huge construction, remember?). It is totally worth taking an hour or two of your time to also explore it, as it houses an impressive collection of classical and modern instruments from all over the globe.
Something I quite appreciated about it too was the fact that it´s designed in a quite interactive way, from a room where Portuguese music from the countryside plays in a room where you can listen while lying on a beanbag, or standing on a platform that vibrates with the music, to rooms where you can experiment with different percussion instruments, or a playlist connected to Spotify where you can add your favourite songs to a playlist designed by other visitors.
The entry to the music museum is included in the original price, or alternatively also free of charge as part of the national program of 52 days of free museums for residents in Portugal.
Wander Around the Downtown and Pop into the Local Market
Now that you´re out in the sunlight again, it´s worth taking a little stroll through the downtown and pop into the newly renovated Mercado Municipal de Mafra. Here you´ll be able to buy fruit and veggies, but also other produce like wine and cheese or even beautiful flowers. You might also encounter musicians playing instruments in there, and there´s always plenty of people having lunch as it also has a food court. We always love a nice local market and couldn´t resist buying some cherries and apricots as they were in season. One thing though – don´t eat just yet because the next and final stop is where you´ll fill your belly.
Drive to Aldeia da Mata Pequena for Dinner at Tasquinha do Gil
Now hop into your car and drive the 15minutes to the Aldeia da Mata Pequena. This little village is actually a sum of accommodations you can rent, doubling as a quaint little village which makes for a super nice stroll. What you´re really here for though is an early dinner at Tasquinha do Gil. This restaurant was a gem of a find for us some years ago and I have been dreaming of it ever since. Sit outside at their tables with red and white checkered table clots and enjoy some delicious cheese to start off, with some nice wine. The menu consists mainly of petiscos (small dishes to share) which range in price from 5€ to 13€. The quality of the food in relationship to the price is fantastic in my opinion, and whether you´re going for a litre of house wine for 8€ or something more elevated like a bottle of a Reserva de Colecionador of a local wine Pomar de Espirito Santo for 77€, there´s something for every budget. Attention, Tasquinha do Gil opens for lunch from 12:30 – 15:30 and then again for dinner feom 19:30 – 22:00, but is closed on Monday and Tuesday and on Sunday it only serves lunch.
And this is it, my little guide of spending a day in the region of Mafra if you want a different day trip from Lisbon.
Note: The Palace of Mafra is the first palace I speak about in my Instagram series Portuguese Palaces, or Enchanted Portugal. Not all palaces I show there will make it into blog articles, so if you don´t want to miss all of them, go ahead and follow me there: https://www.instagram.com/choiceofmagic/ .
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