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TheProject for the Royal Palace in Campo de Ourique was an ambitious 18th century proposal for a monumental royal palace to be built in theCampo de Ourique neighborhood ofLisbon. Portuguese architect Dionizio de S. Dionizio planned the palace for KingJoseph I of Portugal as part of the reconstruction efforts following the destruction of the1755 Lisbon Earthquake.
The1755 Lisbon earthquake, with its ensuing tsunami and fire, devastated much of Lisbon, notably destroying the city'sRibeira Palace royal complex centered at theTerreiro do Paço, including theTagus Royal Opera House and the new cathedral of thePatriarch of Lisbon. Ribeira Palace had been the primary Lisbon residence of theKing of Portugal since the 16th century, when it substituted theRoyal Alcáçova at São Jorge Castle. Following the earthquake, KingJoseph I of Portugal and thePortuguese Royal Family established themselves in the western reaches of Lisbon, which survived the earthquake, first atBelém Palace and then atAjuda Palace.
Reconstruction efforts for the city as a whole were charged toManuel da Maia,Eugénio dos Santos, andCarlos Mardel by theMarquis of Pombal, King Joseph's prime minister. Manuel da Maia, as High-Engineer of the Kingdom, was charged with personally leading the efforts to rebuild a royal palace in central Lisbon.
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In February 1756, Manuel da Maia selectedCampo de Ourique to be the site of the new royal palace and began studies into the geography of the area and the urban planning of the palace and its integration into the larger urban environment.[1] Campo de Ourique was purposefully chosen as an area not located near theTagus river waterfront, which suffered the most destruction from the earthquake and tsunami. In 1758, Maia chargedCarlos Mardel with the objective of contextualizing the chosen palace site into the larger urban fabric of the rebuilding city andEugénio dos Santos with the execution of plans for the palace and its environs.[2]
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The two alternative elevations of possible main façades done by military engineer Captain Dionizio S. Dionizio in 1760 are thought to have been executed under the guidance ofEugénio dos Santos, though the details surrounding the palace's planning are unclear.
Owing to the primary concern of rebuilding the vast amounts of housing and commercial buildings destroyed by the earthquake, the Portuguese Royal Family eventually began to settle atAjuda Palace, with many families of thePortuguese nobility choosing to establish themselves in theBelém district of Lisbon, which was spared from devastation. A sentiment arose among nobles who had rebuilt their own estates in the Belém and Ajuda districts that the King should not relocate and rebuilt a palace in Campo de Ourique, which was a considerable distance from Belém and Ajuda. This sentiment coupled with the complications that arose in the reconstruction of Lisbon, particularly of the scarcity of materials and labour, led to the decision to ultimately abandon the project for a palace in Campo de Ourique.
The façade elevations of the palace were discovered in 2014 by researchers at theLisbon Academy of Sciences in the academy archives.[3] Hélder Carita, a researcher withNOVA University Lisbon'sFCSH, lead the investigation into the origin and context of the architectural plans. While it is assumed that Dionizio S. Dionizio executed these plans while under the leadership ofEugénio dos Santos, the prominence of his name on the plans, while also not being one of the prominent engineers and architects leading Lisbon's reconstruction, raise questions about the context in which these elevations were drawn up.[4]
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