Palácio de São Bento |
Home of the Portuguese Parliament. The building may have once been used as a Benedictine monastery, but today’s residents will be doing anything but keeping quiet. Behind the imposing palace building, within the garden of the old monastery, is a neoclassical mansion that has served as the Prime Minister’s official residence ever since Salazar moved there in 1938. The larger former monastery building once contained a church bordered by two towers, four cloisters, dormitories and kitchens, but was severely damaged during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. After the suppression of religious orders in Portugal in 1834, the monks were kicked out of the monastery and the Portuguese Parliament moved in and remained undisturbed until a fire gutted part of the edifice in 1895. It took 8 years to repair the damage. Since Portugal became a democracy in the late nineteen seventies numerous demonstrations have been held in front of the palace. |