Royal Palace in Sintra, 12th century.

This was one of the most enjoyable palaces that I have visited, what was entertaining about this palace was the painted ceilings in each room. The ceilings painted in the royal palace depicted scenes that was synonymous with events or what that particular room was used for.

Sintra streets.

Royal Palace

Ornate passageways

Intricately carved wooden pieces of furniture

This painted room was the swan room, photos do not do it justice, this is a formal area of the palace that is used for dignitaries.

A larger perspective of this grand room in the palace

Tile influence from the moors.

Ornately carved bed with wood and silver, more tiles on the walls.

Gorgeous tapestries, note the fish tureens,early 18th century Chinese pottery, very valuable.

Cow

Pig or wild boar.

Hen and duck

More tureens, a duck

The above tureen's really appealed to my quirky nature, 18th century chineseware.

This ceiling in the waiting room, depicted 126 magpies, apparently the number of maids employed in the royal palace that gossiped about the king having an affair.

The ship room, this ceiling was painted with many different ships at sea and the overall ceiling looked like a bow from a ship, so hard to capture how amazing these painted ceilings were.

More intricate furniture,

Intricate embroidered hangings.

Antique artworks hung throughout the palace.

Another intricatly painted ceiling, this had the coat of arms of the royal family.

The walls were lined with tiles, depicting scenes of different battles, that the royal family may have been involved in.

Tiles over archways of doors.

It is hard to describe how wonderful the artistry of these painted ceilings are.

The next room we visited was the prayer room, this room had doves painted all over the walls.

Doves on the walls

This was an engraved inlaid table.

An Italian murano glass chandelier.

This royal kitchen has a rotisserie, this is how the meat was cooked in the early days. I could imagine suckling pigs being roasted on this spit.

A very large royal kitchen.

What is amazing about this palace is the two huge chimneys in the kitchen, this is to allow the smoke to escape, they are domed shaped and on the outside of the palace, they look quite impressive.

A murano glass mirror

The gardens attached to the palace.

Inlaid marble fountain in the middle of a room.

This concludes my tour of the palace, not overly palatial but lots of interesting features.