The private rooms of the palace are far smaller and more intimate than the formal state rooms and contain many royal mementos and curios which belonged to the rooms’ former occupants. Amongst the more remarkable rooms in this suite are the Sala das Merendas, the Queen’s Boudoir and the King’s Bedroom.

Princess d. Maria francisca benedita’s rooms
From the private quarters of D. Maria Francisca Benedita (1746-1829), Princess of Brazil, younger sister of Queen D. Maria I, are the Saleta, the D. Maria Style Room, the Empire Style Room and the Oratory. This small, intimate room is referred to in a 1795 floor plan as the “Princess D. Maria Benedita’s Room”, inhabited by the princess after becoming the widow of Crown Prince D. José, her nephew.

The current decoration of these rooms, in the neoclassical and empire styles, results from the remodeling carried out in the time of D. João VI, with ceilings and wainscoting of tempered canvas. The ornamentation reinforces the human scale of the rooms and the close relationship with the gardens, highlighting the archaeological and Pompeian themes – disseminated from the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum and Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt – including sphinxes and medallions with harbors. sea, in the style of Jean-Baptiste Pillement. Some of these elements are repeated in the ornamentation of the furniture.

The Cradle Room, adjacent to the Fourth Empire, was part of the former “Hermitage Corridor”, an alternate backstage circuit that developed from the Ambassadors’ Room and to the Chapel, behind the noble rooms and rooms, with façade. to the gardens. This service corridor, where the servants, maids, chambermaids and other personnel in service in the palace circulated, was changed and modified by successive works during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In the center of the Princess’s room, on the axis of the garden of Malta, is a small Oratory which, built in 1788, is also known as the Chapel of Our Lady of Carmen, due to the image of Our Lady by whom Queen D Carlota Joaquina, who heard daily mass here, had a special devotion. The altar is by the carver António Angelo.

Smoking Room and Coffee Room
The Sculpture Room, the Smoking Room and the Coffee Room are not currently part of the original wing of Princess Maria Francisca Benedita’s Quarters, and their names are due to their functions. which they had in the second half of the nineteenth century, during their short stays at the Palace of King D. Luís and Queen D. Maria Pia de Savoie. In the first space the queen installed her sculpture studio, while the other two served to drink coffee (room adjoining the dining room) and to smoke, respectively.

Dining Room
The nomenclature of this room is recent, due to the function given to it by the last monarchs who used it. Indeed, the very notion of the Dining Room as a predefined space is relatively late. With the exception of the Snack Room, the most intimate space in the Robillion Pavilion, at the heart of the king’s private quarters, the place where the table was literally set varied according to the occasion, the monarchs’ personal taste and the very location of their private apartments.

Porcelain and Earthenware Room and view of the Patio da Otter
Attached to the Dining Room, it presents a museum arrangement for the exhibition of the collection of European and Eastern earthenware and porcelain, mostly from the royal collections, including pieces of Royal House tableware used at the Palace. It overlooks a small, intimate interior courtyard, which has a lake designated by the curious name of the Otter’s Courtyard, probably related to the presence of a similar animal here.

Mango or Tile Corridor
Room covered with neoclassical polychromatic tiles, representing the seasons, continents, scenes from classical mythology, singeries , chinoiseries and hunting scenes.

The name of this space evokes the glass sleeves that protected the candles and it is assumed that they would be kept here.

Tile panels covering the upper part of the walls, dating from 1784, of high technical quality and decorative effect, make up neoclassical polychrome panels attributed to the ceramic painter Francisco Jorge da Costa. They represent the four seasons, the four continents, singeries and chinoiseries with oriental figures and scenes from classical mythology. The older lambrim is decorated with blue and white panels depicting predominantly hunting outdoor scenes and is attributed to the painter Manuel da Costa Rosado, who would have performed them in 1764.

The room is also decorated with blue and white earthenware vases, from Real Fábrica do Rato, and replicas of them, from Fábrica Viúva Lamego. Also on display here is a copy of the various carts “discovered for riding on the farms”, commissioned in 1767 by D. Pedro and executed under the direction of Robillion, with Pompeian decoration and delicately carved wooden poles and wheels.

Torch Room
Located in the central part of the Ceremony Facade, it is part of a set of rooms currently furnished with illustrative pieces of the three most representative styles of the Palace – D. José, D. Maria and Empire – which follow one another in a chronological and pedagogical order.

It is part of the nucleus that corresponds to the first phase of construction of Prince D. Pedro’s Country House, of expansion and adaptation of the former palace of the Marqueses de Castelo Rodrigo, which began in 1747 under the direction of architect Mateus Vicente de Oliveira.

In the Torch Room, furnished and decorated in the D. José style, the European and Eastern influences characteristic of the Portuguese court environments of the mid-18th century are notorious. This mix is noticeable, both in Portuguese saint-wood furniture, which reflects the French Louis XV-style and English influences of Chippendale furniture , and in Chinese export to the European lacquer and porcelain market, whose trade had been initiated by the Portuguese. Portuguese in the 16th century.

D. José style room
This space, located in the central part of the Façade of Ceremonies, is currently furnished with D. José style pieces.
The present reconstruction of a bedroom illustrates the European and Oriental influences characteristic of the Portuguese aristocratic environments of the mid-18th century, where the reds of apricots and lacquers contrasted with the dark and exotic woods of Brazilian origin.

Archers Room
Located in the center of the Facade of Ceremonies, which mark the main axis of the apparatus gardens, was once the noble entrance of the palace, giving access to the Ambassadors Room. This room opens directly to the Suspension Garden, guarded by two sculptures (Mars and Minerva) by the English artist John Cheere.
It is currently furnished with D. Maria style pieces.

Private Room
This space, located in the central part of the Façade of Ceremonies, is currently furnished with Empire style pieces.
Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, its walls were covered with a rare wallpaper, already missing, representing battles between Turks and Greeks, visible in a photograph of the time.

In this room the chamberlains were waiting in the time of the Prince Regent, whose rooms were upstairs.

Ambassadors Room
First known as Barraca Rica, the Column Room, the Serenade, the Serenade and the Gallery, this dependence became known after 1794 as the Talhas Room and the Ambassadors Room.

Its construction began in 1754, under the risk of architect Jean-Baptiste Robillion, and the model of this room was presented to the infant D. Pedro in 1760. In it collaborated the French Jacques Antoine Colin, carver, and Jean François Cragnier, assembler, and the Portuguese Bruno José do Vale and Francisco de Melo, who painted the ceiling and the molding with allegorical and chinoiserie motifs . The painting of the central panel, of great scenographic effect, represents the royal family participating in a serenim (concert). It is a replica of the original canvas attributed to the Italian painter Giovanni Berardi, completed in 1762, which was lost in the fire of 1934, which particularly affected this area of the palace.

This is the space of the Palace where the influence of the chinoiserie decoration is best felt , so to the taste of the second half of the 18th century. The existence of two canopies for thrones, delimited by the mirror columns, was justified by the ceremonies in which the kings were accompanied by the Princes of Brazil, by which the heir princes were known.

From 1794, when Queluz became the permanent residence of the Royal Family, until 1807, the year of departure for Brazil, this room was used by the Prince Regent for his Hummingbird and audiences of the diplomatic corps and foreign ministers, who here they had credentials, so it became known as the Ambassador’s Room.

National Palace of Queluz
Located between Lisbon and Sintra, the National Palace of Queluz is one of the leading examples of the rococo and neoclassical architectural styles from the second half of the eighteenth century in Portugal.

Commissioned in 1747 by the future King Pedro III, married to Queen Maria I, the residence was initially designed as a summer house and thus a favoured place for the royal family’s leisure and entertainment but which became their permanent home from 1794 through to their departure for Brazil in 1807, following the country’s invasion by Napoleon’s armies.

Grandiose meeting rooms, places for worship and private rooms follow on from each other in an intimate interconnection with the gardens as a fundamental part of these pleasure-inducing surroundings. Along the spectacular Lions Staircase, by the french artist Jean-Baptiste Robillion, we arrive at the monumental Tiled Canal with its great panels depicting seaports and courtly scenes. The garden pathways are enlivened by the italian and british sculptures, in their main with mythological themes, and highlighting the set of lead sculptures by the London-based artist John Cheere alongside the numerous lakes and other water features.

The evolution of the Court taste throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, strongly influenced by French and Italian as well as English taste, is particularly presented in the Palace interiors, historical Gardens and collections.

The National Palace of Queluz is now managed by the public company Parques de Sintra-Monte da Lua (PSML), established in 2000 following the recognition by UNESCO, in 1995, of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra as a World Heritage Site.