Our cousin Beatriz wants to show our visiting cousin Michael (and us) a 'different side' of Portugal; here's a photo essay of our day trip into a series of local sites that are 'off the beaten path' …
Aldeia da Mata Pequena
The Aldeia da Mata Pequena is a tiny village, just south of Mafra, being restored to keep this 'model' or 'case study' intact – part archeology and part nostalgia, all incredibly beautiful and bucolic.
Palácio de Mafra
The Palácio de Mafra (eighteenth century) is closed on Tuesdays. Still, it is an impressive structure, and we find a lunch spot nearby so we can take pictures and enjoy the town center. Anyway, a Baroque palace does not quite seem in keeping with the day's spirit.
Aldeia Museu José Franco
The Aldeia Museu José Franco (twentieth century) is another take on the same idea of 'local preservation'. But rather than saving a ruined village, the ceramist and sculptor José Franco is responsible for a series of 'minatures' at various scales, including the aldeia (village) itself (near life-size, ie 'child-sized'): workshops, stores, a chapel, a farm house, etc.
Enjoyable and eccentric the Museu is on the estrada (N116) in Sobreiro, just north of Mafra. It is jammed full of artistic oddities as well as masterpieces, such as the muscular ceramics workers. If this is a labor of love, there is an outpouring here.
Ermida de São Julião
Near the village of Carvoeira, just west of Mafra, is the Ermida de São Julião (sixteenth and eighteenth centuries). The compound commands a headland between two beaches: Praia Foz do Lisandro to the north and Praia de São Julião to the south; currently, several refugee Ukrainians live in the empty cottages. On the seawall stands a wonderful, tiled marker with cross.
Inside, the painéis azulejos tell the life story of São Julião, a Christian martyr who suffered a series of violent tortures: condemned to death by Marciaõ, bathed in hot oil, his head and beard shorn, set on fire, and beheaded.
S. Juliaõ he degolado no meio de malfeitores, e deste modo entregou a álma a D.(es)[St. Julian was beheaded in the midst of evildoers, and in this way he gave his soul to God]
The azulejos in the sacristia shows scenes of Nosso Senhor dos Passos, with similar abuses. Outside, on the southeastern corner of the chapel, there is a delightful sundial (1754). And on a tile in the jardim, after their martyrdom, São Julião and his wife Santa Basilissa, stand on the shores of heaven below the Holy Spirit.
Just up the road, we watch the sunset from a nearby cafetaria, the Gota d'Álcool.
