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Although smaller in size, this 18th-century castle is sometimes called the Portuguese Versailles, for its extravagant designs and detailed decorations, both on the outside and on the inside. This pleasure palace of the Portuguese Royal Family is considered a prime piece of Rococo architecture and has been thoroughly restored.
The Palace of Queluz is an 18th-century palace located at Queluz, a city of the Sintra Municipality, in the Lisbon District, on the Portuguese Riviera. One of the last great Rococo buildings to be designed in Europe, the palace was conceived as a summer retreat for King Joseph I's brother, Peter of Braganza, later to become husband and king jure uxoris to his own niece, Queen Maria I. It eventually served as a discreet place of incarceration for Maria I, when she became afflicted by severe mental illness in the years following Peter III's death in 1786. Following the destruction of the Palace of Ajuda by fire in 1794, Queluz Palace became the official residence of the Portuguese Prince Regent John, and his family, and remained so until the royal family fled to the Portuguese colony of Brazil following the French invasion of Portugal (1807).
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