e of Joao I. to that of Dom Manoel, a
building thoroughly Eastern in plan as in detail, and absolutely unlike
such contemporary buildings as the palaces of the dukes of Braganza at
Guimaraes or at Barcellos, or the castle at Villa da Feira between
Oporto and Aveiro. The Braganza palaces are both in ruins, but their
details are all such as might be found almost anywhere in Christian
Europe. Large pointed doors, traceried windows and tall chimneys--these
last round and of brick--differ only from similar features found
elsewhere, as one dialect may differ from another, whereas Cintra is, as
it were, built in a

[Sidenote: Villa da Feira.]

totally different language. The castle at Villa da Feira is even more
unlike anything at Cintra. A huge keep of granite, the square turrets
projecting slightly from the corners give it the look of a Norman
castle, for the curious spires of brick now on those turrets were added
later, perhaps under Dom Manoel. Inside there is now but one vast hall
with pointed barrel roof, for all the wooden floors are gone, leaving
only the beam holes in the walls, the Gothic fireplaces, and the small
windows to show where they once were.

It is then no wonder that Cintra has been called the Alhambra of
Portugal, and it is curious that the same names are found given to
different parts of the two buildings. The Alhambra has a Mirador de
Lindaraxa, Cintra a Jardim de Lindaraya; the Alhambra a Torre de las dos
Hermanas, Cintra a Sala das Irmas or of the Sisters--the part under the
Sala dos Escudos where Affonso V. was born; while both at the Alhambra
and here there is a garden called de las or das Damas.

CHAPTER VIII

OTHER MOORISH BUILDINGS

The old palace at Cintra is perhaps the only complete building to the
north of the Tagus designed and carried out by Moorish workmen scarcely,
if at all, influenced by what the conquering Christians were doing round
them. Further south in the province of Alemtejo Moorish buildings are
more common, and there are many in which, though the design and plan as
well as most of the detail may be Western, yet there is something, the
whitewashed walls, the round conical pinnacles, or the flat roofs which
give them an Eastern look.

And this is natural. Alemtejo was conquered after the country north of
the Tagus had been for some time Christian, and no large immigration of
Christians ever came to take the place of the Moors, so that those few
who remained conti