Portugal: Mafra – Palacio Nacional de Mafra

Palacio Nacional de Mafra aka Mafra Palace is the largest Baroque building in Portugal and one of the most colossal palaces ever constructed in Europe. Covering over 40,000 sq m, the complex is combines a Royal Palace, a Franciscan Monastery, a Basilica, and a world-famous historic library. The construction was started in 1717 on the orders of King Joao V who promised the Franciscan friars in Mafra to build a monastery if his wife (Queen Maria Anna of Austria) got pregnant. When his daughter was born, he ordered the construction of a small monastery, but right then the ships with gold arrived from Brazil, and the king decided to plunge all the wealth into building something bigger and grander then Versailles in Paris and El Escorial in Madrid. Everything about this place is over the top – 92 bells that can be heard 15km away, six pipe organs, marble of all shoes and colors throughout, a hall with hundreds of deer horns and furniture made out of them, and the massive library with 36,000 books.