THE DARK DOOR OPENING

Mafra, National Palace, inside the main church. João Frederico Ludovice, German and trained in Italy, was the architect.

STONE MADNESS II

Side Chapel, Church of São Roque, Lisbon. The intarsia work is stone madness at its best, but compared to the Chapel of S. João Baptista, in the same church, the overall design result seems rough and naive.

MÃE D'ÁGUA

The main cornice at the Mãe d'Água in Lisbon. This was one of the main water reservoirs in town, terminating the huge aqueduct of Águas Livres. The simple detailing reveals the utilitarian nature of the building, its refinement the elegance of ages past. Under Lisbon's harsh light, the moldings become bold, shadows deep and planes of light disappear into the texture of the limestone.

SUMMER TIME!

Palácio do Conde do Bolhão, Porto. The "count" or his decorator had a perverse sense of humour and incorporated a couple of tomatoes and a cucumber as a motif for his cornice, in one of the beads. In Portuguese the phallic references are literal. Above, a repeating fork and spoon in another reed sound innocent by comparison, and still above a frieze of grapes mixed with pineapples makes no mistakes: hospitality together with plentifulness. One can only imagine the parties this place must have seen, and its signs are immortalized in stucco.