Amazing Architecture

As Professional Innsitters we get to work in a lot of beautiful homes: old victorians, charming cottages and modern town houses. We do not get to see places like this! On our recent vacation we saw lots of amazing architecture and I'm going to share some of my favorites with you...

A lot of truly amazing architecture is to be found in Portugal. Both of these two palaces are in Sintra. The Pena Palace above is a fantastical pastel concoction that sits on top of a mountain looking down on all the other palaces. From there you can take a lovely stroll down to town.The Regaline Palace is done in the Manualine [lavishly overdecorated] style of architecture that is so popular in Portugal. This one because has a 100ft deep well with carved staircase that you can follow down to a cave!

 Here's another Manualine Palace ,a really lovely complex with a lake surrounded by palm trees- the Mataeus Palace in the Duro Valley outside of Porto. Yup, it's where good old Mataeus Rose wine was made. It is sill a winery and they make much better wine now - good thing Kirk was driving on our tour of the Duro Valley so that I could sip as much as I wanted! We stopped at several wineries some in palaces and some in old farmsteads.









Look closely at this amazing architecture - uh huh, human skulls used as molding! This is the Chapel of the Bones in Evora. All the walls in the chapel where made of bones to remind us how fleeting life is. Spooky!

This wonderful architecture is in Morocco but it is called the Portuguese Cistern because it was designed by a Portuguese architect. It is a hauntingly lovely cistern that has been in El Jadida for 800 years. Now the floor is covered with just a few inches of water to create beautiful photos such as this one.

Morocco itself is filled with amazing architecture - lots of very ornate plaster, stone, glass and wood work. The Islamic decorations are very geometric and detailed and some of them are very ancient. This door way is a mosque in Fez. Of course we could not go in but our guide showed us where to stand to get a peek and take a picture while the local men went to worship.











 This classic horseshoe archway is in an old Madersa or school that has been in Fez for 900 years - it used to be a place for Islamic students to study and now it is a place for tourists to be amazed.


As you can see we had an amazing vacation and the architecture was a big part of it.
What sort of architecture do you like best?