Casa de Mateus
The 18th-century Casa de Mateus is one of Portugal’s great baroque masterpieces – probably the work of Italian-born architect Nicolau Nasoni. The palace's granite wings shelter a lichen-encrusted forecourt dominated by an ornate stairway and guarded by rooftop statues. Surrounding the palace is a fantasy of a garden, with tiny boxwood hedges, prim statues and a fragrant cypress tunnel that’s blissfully cool on even the hottest days. (Vila Real, Portugal)
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