Portugal 2022 – The Palaces and Mansion Tour

Highlights From This Trip

• 7 Days
• 2000km driven
• 34 Locations Explored
• ~600 photographs
• Explored some magnificent abandoned palaces and forgotten villas
• Nice mix of locations; cars, trains, churches, industry, prison, theatres and much more!

An amazing adventure, A long overdue revist to Portugal

It was great to be back in sunny Portugal! Exploring beautiful abandoned places and sunshine are two of my favourite things; and Portugal has both in abundance! My first urbex trip to Portugal in 2017 was amazing! However, I can honestly say that this trip beat that one hands down. So much so, I want to go back again as soon as possible; for urbex as well as seafood/vino verde/sea swimming/sun.

The main highlight of this tour, was the grand abandoned palaces! Second to these I was also lucky enough to explore several huge villas. Each stuffed full of beautiful furniture and elegantly decorated. It appears that yellow and brown boldly striped wooden floors were once popular (several houses having very similar underfoot decoration).

Additionally, I explored a wide range of abandoned places. The diversity was pretty impressive! Ruined and pristine old theatres. A large prison, the cellblocks radiating from the central hub like the spokes of a wheel. Almost every mode of transport was represented; car, train, boats (sadly we had to skip the planes!). There were a multitude of churches ranging from simple family chapels, to larger places of worship. I also explored some interesting abandoned industrial locations, ranging from pristine to collapsing and filled with plant life. A beautiful morgue was also a highlight. Lastly, I managed to tick one type of location off my bucket list; an abandoned water park. Yay!

A couple of revisits

Out of the 34 locations explored, two of these were revisits. First was Seminary of Emptiness / Seminário ST; since my previous visit this location suffered an immense fire. The rest of the religious college has been gutted but the church escaped with only a minor roof collapse. Secondly, we made a quick stop at Oval Crypta.

Déjà vu at Dream House

During my first trip to Portugal, we had to skip Dream House (reluctantly). Sadly time pressures and changing plans sometimes mean sacrifices must be made. As an aside, I did buy a bracelet from the local street market which I have worn every day since! I digress, back to the decay!

This time, I was determined to visit Dream House (as was my wonderful travel companion!). After trying a few different entry points, it was clear that the floors have been serving as a woodworm banquet and were very holey. Eventually we picked a route which we were advised was the “least deathy”, and carefully made our way to the staircase.

In person the location did not disappoint! The soft pinky-peachy colours, the detailed plaster moldings and the cute leaf-shaped window all combined exquisitely.

That’s it for this road trip round-up!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this article. Here are some more behind-the-scenes photos, selfies and sneak previews of what I got up to in Portugal!