Sintra National Palace restores tiles with the support of the World Monuments Fund Portugal

Parques de Sintra and the World Monuments Fund – Portugal will join forces to restore the tiles in the Arab Room, the Chamber of King Afonso VI and the Water Grotto of the National Palace of Sintra. The collaboration protocol between the two entities will be signed this Thursday, 27 February, at 12 noon, at the National Palace of Sintra, in the presence of Sofia Cruz, chair of the Board of Directors of Parques de Sintra, and Miguel Horta e Costa, president of the World Monuments Fund – Portugal. Also present at the ceremony will be Dulce Mota, vice-president of the World Monuments Fund – Portugal.

The first phase of the project will be to diagnose the state of conservation of the elements that will subsequently be subject to conservation and restoration work on site, in accordance with Parques de Sintra's "Open for Work" policy, namely the tiling of the walls and floor of the Arab Room and its central fountain; the tiling of the walls of the Water Grotto, its stucco ceilings and stone arcades; and the mosaic floor of the Chamber of King Afonso VI.

Parques de Sintra has set up various partnerships with educational institutions and public organisations with a view to studying and producing knowledge about the heritage it manages. The area of tile coverings has been no exception, so this protocol with the World Monuments Fund – Portugal also includes a training and research component. As part of this, two workshops will be held: one national, for the professional training of Parques de Sintra technicians and students from the Sintra Professional School for Heritage Recovery; the other international, with specialists in the conservation and restoration of tile heritage. An international seminar will also be organised for specialists in this field.

With a thousand years of history, the National Palace of Sintra is one of the most important monuments in the historical, artistic and social context of Sintra, with high importance at a European level in terms of its tile collection. Safeguarding this important heritage collection requires conservation and restoration actions in line with the best practices and intervention techniques in the European context, which makes the sharing of knowledge particularly important.

The project represents an investment of 316,000 euros, which will be covered in equal parts by Parques de Sintra and the World Monuments Fund – Portugal.