The dream of a Portuguese duke realized by a French millionaire

Maria and Sergei roam the halls of the Palacio do Grilo. Evening light makes Mary’s blond hair even lighter. Outside, in the garden, the wind shakes the vegetation. There is music: French, instrumental, violins. The couple is addicted. There are over 200 rooms to visit. Slowly they wander through the doors of the unfinished palace and watch every detail.

There are more people in different rooms of the palace. Some are walking, some are jumping, some are screaming, some are lying languidly on the floor. Everything seems to be in another dimension, in another time. But no. They are in Lisbon. AT Cricket Palacein Beato, which opened to the public in June this year.

The Grilo Palace was conceived by the 1st Duke of Lafoens D. Pedro Henrique de Braganza in the 18th century. The duke, an illegitimate descendant of D. Pedro II, envisioned “a place that is also not a place and that can let the soul take the flight that suits it best”. Words in quotation marks will be written in notebook abandoned by the duke and discovered three centuries later Julien Labroussewho left Paris for Lisbon and bought the palace in 2020.

Now the dream of the 1st Duke of Lafoins has come true. He arranged the words he had left, set to work and prepared the palace for the reception of visitors, following and adapting the wishes of the duke, set out in the “inspirational” notebook.

On each page you can find a description of each of the divisions. “I want all spaces in Grilo, both in terms of decoration and function, to be created for us so that we can languish and dream better than anywhere else in the world,” wrote D. Pedro de Braganza.

Three centuries later, the project was completed, as evidenced by the ethereal atmosphere of this late afternoon at the Palacio do Grilo. Virtually untouched since it was built, the whole atmosphere created by the furniture, the ambient music, the actors who improvise (but inspired by the words of the Duke) takes us to another dimension, to dreams, to a live film, which, if you will.

The goal is precisely that “people can wander, discover and live a little in the realm of the fantastic and the extravagant,” explains Julien Labrousse, “while the actors and dancers are performing” in the various divisions. Tables and chairs are also scattered throughout the departments, which you can watch. restaurant menu and drinks from the bar. There are also divisions of the Palacio do Grilo that will function as creative residences or can be rented for private events.

It is “in the dimension of the fantastic” that Maria Kozhevnikova and Sergey Zhesterev are located, a couple at the beginning of this story. Living in Lisbon since September, the two young Russians take pictures in every room, enjoy the light of dusk and watch all that the Palacio do Grilo has to offer.

“It’s an impressive experience. It’s amazing how such a place is located in the city center,” says Maria. “I don’t know which parts of the palace have been restored, windows are broken there, there are more well-groomed rooms. It’s charming,” the girl praises, wondering what the dynamics of the space will be like in winter.

Palacio do Grilo, T200 worth discovering in Beato

Julien and his team have prepared more than 200 rooms of the Palacio do Grilo for the reception of the public. With just a few new pieces of furniture and decor, the Labrus team wanted the furnishings to remain true to their origin and time, and so inside the palace you can find sets of wall paintings by Cirilo Volkmar Machado or 18th-century tiles. and the 19th century, which combine the themed halls of the Palacio do Grilo, such as the Academy Hall, the Venus Hall or the China Hall.

The rectangular chapel contains a panel with gilded carvings from the second half of the 18th century. This last division will not have performance“Out of respect for the family that celebrated Mass there,” explains Julien.

The estate of more than 7000 m2 belonged to the family of the Dukes of Lafoynes from 1759 until Julien Labrousse purchased it in 2020. The last duke, D. Afonso Cayetano de Braganza, died in 2021, living in the palace until it was purchased by Julien in 2020.

French architecture lover, producer and manager of cultural spaces such as champs montmartre this is Trianontwo Parisian concert halls, have already invested in Portugal – eco-hotel in Cabo Espichel. Now he is adding the Palacio do Grilo, which he considers “a museum of the performing arts; what you need in cities” and would like it to be “the calling card of Lisbon”.

A month after the opening, the entrepreneur sums up. “He works very well. There are always little things going on and the audience loves it. Let’s read the audience and adapt. We almost always had dinner reservations.” He also explains that weekends are when there are more visitors, and that some don’t know where they’re going and get confused. “There are those who just come for a drink, and then realize that you can open here.” Others come to explore every corner of this noble space and end up having dinner.

More than two hundred rooms to discover, a place that is not a place, this is what the visitor wants, restaurant, bar, theater, museum, time machine, Palacio do Grilo.

Admission is free, the palace is open every day from 11 am to midnight..

* Daniela Oliveira born in Porto 22 years ago, but the desire to live in Lisbon spoke louder and a year ago he moved to the capital. Discovering Lisbon and telling its stories has always been a dream. He studies Communication Sciences at Católica and is doing an internship at Mensagem de Lisboa. This article has been edited by Katarina Pires.