Tour of the Bolsa Palace (Chamber of Commerce)
Still a bit rainy today, little warmer so off to do some sightseeing, inside! We passed the Bolsa Palace (Palace of Commerce) several days ago and elected not to go inside due to the large crowd. Today, with a bit of rain, no crowd! Imagine that!
From the outside the building doesn’t grab your attention, rather plain Neo-classical architecture, grey, unassuming. It is located across from a nice park with a statue of Infante D. Henrique, or as his friends knew him, Prince Henry the Navigator. Guess anytime you wanted to know how to get somewhere, just ask Henry. Just kidding. Henry was the 4th child of King John I of Portugal and was mostly responsible for the expansion of the Portuguese empire in the 15th century.
Infante D. Henrique
But this is about the Bolsa Palace, not Henry so back to the building. With just a few people waiting for the English tour, we decided to see what the inside of this building was like. All the tour books say this is the place to see, so why not.
Bolsa Palace or The Chamber of Commerce
Construction of this building began in 1842 and most of the building was completed by 1850. The interior, however, was not completed until 1910, some 68 years later. Because of this, there are several different architectural tastes displayed inside the building. For example, the grand stairway and Arab Room were designed and built by Gustavo Adolfo Gonçalves e Sousa. The dome over the courtyard was designed and built by Tomás Augusto Soler. And the Tribunal Room was designed and built by Joel da Silva Pereira, just to name a few. The result was an interior that was magnificently decorated with each architect / artist attempting to outdo the other.
Original (restored) flooring. No nails, no glue!
Courtyard dome
Grand Staircase adornment
Grand Staircase
Flooring
President’s Chamber (President of Commerce)
I think the winner of the “lavish” contest goes to Gustavo Adolfo Gonçalves e Sousa for the Arab Room which is decorated in exotic Moorish Revival style. (Commonly known as “gaudy”). All this for the Chamber of Commerce?
The Arab Room
Arab Room ceiling
Arab Room detail
Arab Room detail
Arab Room detail
Much like all the other days of our travel, we endth with a meal. This time we had a francesinha sandwich that is a meal in itself. This unique sandwich consists of toasted bread, beef, pork, chorizo, ham, and cheese, and an egg on top, while the whole combination is then doused in a rich beer-infused tomato sauce. This time it was Dan’s turn to try something Portuguese although Collette did help finish off the meal.
Francesinha sandwich
And the survey says…too much beer in the sauce. The sandwich is great, all that meat with cheese and an egg, wonderful. But the sauce was just too malty for me If we order this again, we’ll try to get it dry because it is a real meat lover’s sandwich.