Bathed in Beauty

Bathed in Beauty By Cristina Castel-Branco

A grant from Norway has allowed ancient water features in gardens across Portugal to be returned to their former splendour.

To help gardens survive during the dry months of May to September in Portugal we need to store water. But, when it rains, the intensity of the rainfall creates flash floods that are almost subtropical. The care of water requires a strategic approach, which is evident in historic gardens. In 2006, the Portuguese Association of Historical Gardens and Sites (APJSH) was granted €1 million by EEA Grants (a mechanism of the European Economic Area, mainly financed by Norway). Our submission was specifically for the “Restoration of Gardens’ Hydraulic Systems, Walls and Trails”, and the grant allowed us to reestablish ancient hydraulic systems and to improve other garden structures. The money was awarded over a five-year period for the restoration of twelve historic gardens spread across Portugal, including its Atlantic islands of the Azores and Madeira. The sites selected were representative of Portugal’s landscape art from the 14th to the 19th centuries and contained hydraulic structures really worthy of restoration.

In the majority of the gardens, technical teams came across water-collection systems that were no longer operational or not working properly. This had led to a waste of natural resources and to higher costs due to the consumption of commercially supplied water.

The twelve gardens were assigned a project director, affiliated to APJSH, who was a landscape architect experienced in restoration. The teams were coordinated by me (as APJSH President) and managed by Isabel Andrade. This article will concentrate on the two most expensive sites: the Fronteira gardens in Lisbon and the Hotel Quinta das Lágrimas in Coimbra, 200km (125 miles) north of the capital.

I would like to begin by setting out four characteristics which, when found together, perfectly define the essence of Portuguese gardens: diversity of plants, open vistas, the use of decorative tiles and the presence of large water tanks.

The diversity of flowering trees and shrubs is determined by history and by a climate that suits plants from temperate regions and subtropical zones. Both groups find a perfect habitat for growth and reproduction, allowing a multiplicity of flowers and foliage throughout the year. The 15th- and 16th-century explorations that opened up maritime routes to other continents are evident in the sheer variety of trees and shrubs that were introduced and acclimatised. Exotic novelties adapted well to Portuguese gardens and I have documented elsewhere the route of the sweet orange Citrus sinensisfrom China to India and finally to Lisbon around 1610.

The Portuguese doctor Garcia de Orta described the fruit in Coloquio dos Simples e Drogas da India (1563), a catalogue of the medical uses of 200 plants found in India. The fruit is described as unexpectedly sweet in comparison to the bitter orange that we already had in the Iberian Peninsula. Philip II of Spain (who became King of Portugal in 1583) was so impressed that he sent samples to his children in Madrid: “They gave me the other day what I am sending to you now in this box. They told me that it’s a sweet lemon and though I think it is a kind of lemon, I wanted to send it to you because I never saw such a big one…”

Once naturalised, sweet oranges joined other imported plants, such as the camellia from Japan, wisteria from China, Lagerstroemia indica and Melia azedarach (chinaberry) from India, Jacaranda mimosifolia and Aloysia citrodora (lemon verbena) from Brazil, and many others.

The second characteristic, the view, is the result of accidents of topography and a system of urban settlement that favoured hilltops and grand vistas onto the sea or over valleys. Splendid views are practically a given for Portuguese historic gardens.

The history of this country determines the final two distinctive features: tiles (azulejos) and the large water pools we call tanques. Five hundred years of Islamic culture in the Iberian Peninsula have left their mark on decorative forms, especially in the use of tiles. These highly durable ceramic works of art surround pools and enhance fountains, niches, banks, stairways, summer houses, walls and turrets with their strong colours and geometrical patterns.

Crucial to the survival of plants in summer, water was gathered from minas (subterranean canals) and extracted through lifting systems to be stored in closed cisterns and open tanks. After close contact with Indian culture (both Hindu and Mughal) in the 16th century, water was employed æsthetically before fulfilling its irrigation purpose. Large pools, beside pavilions decorated with colourful azulejos, stored water and deployed its qualities to create refined spaces of comfort and beauty.

Hindu and Mughal cultures impressed Portuguese people living in Goa, Mumbai, Daman and Diu, enabling them to understand the garden as a space of enjoyment by day and by night. Properties commissioned by viceroys and nobility returning to Lisbon from Goa in the 16th century reflected the garden and architectural traditions seen in India. Both countries had a need to store large volumes of water, and in Hindu culture these pools became places of worship. Pavilions next to water channels, large marble pools and water jets are the essence of Mughal garden art.

Architects and engineers, returning along with the governors and nobles, led to an adoption of Indian garden features that can still be seen in the gardens of Quinta da Penha Verde in Sintra (c1540), Quinta da Bacalhoa in Azeitão (c1550), the Nuncio’s garden at Quinta da Penha Longa in Sintra (c1560), Quinta das Torres in Azeitão (c1570), and Fronteira in Lisbon (c1660).

At Fronteira, Italian, Islamic and Mughal garden art

merge. Five members of the Mascarenhas family were governors and viceroys of India for three-hundred years from 1554 and brought Indian decoration into their garden. Don João de Mascarenhas created the Fronteira garden around 1660.

Fernando Mascarenhas (1945-2014), Marquess of Fronteira, was an active member of the Historic Gardens

Previous page: The restored fountains and jets at the Fronteira summer house in 2011.

Left: The ancient water system of Quinta da Boa Viagem, restored by the author and Maria Matos Silva.

Right: The new orange garden at Fronteira built for Fernando Mascarenhas, and designed by the author and Raquel Carvalho in 2010.

Below left: The Casa de Juste pool at Quinta de Santo António, restored by Teresa Chambel in 2011. Below right: A canal at Fronteira, recycling water for irrigation after its use in jets and fountains.

Association and he was a co-applicant for the EEA Grant. The funds allowed us to restore the most distinctive example of this Indian-Portuguese link: the summer house adorned with embrechadoson its inner vaults, tiles on its dome and numerous water features inside. (Embrechadosare walls decorated with inlaid shells, coloured stones, broken porcelain and glass.) The cylindrical summer house is topped by a dome like those found on 16th-century Hindu mausoleums. In front of the summer house is a raised pool whose stone edges are intricately carved into four ‘S’ shapes. These distinctive shapes are also found in India’s Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra, confirming the Mughal influence on this garden.

The pool is surrounded by benches decorated with azulejos. During the restoration, my team rediscovered four jets hidden behind the benches, which were designed to spray water on unsuspecting visitors, much like the playful giochi in Italy. The jets, fed by a water tank on an upper terrace, have been restored and now function as intended, provided there is water in the upper tank.

Inside the summer house, we restored a stone table with a bubbling spout that creates a pleasant sound under the echoing dome. All these hydraulic features were designed to be powered by gravity and we were able to restore them without adding other sources of power.

A new garden was commissioned by the Marquess and built on the lower terrace using water, azulejos, a strong geometric design and a large storage pool that recycles water from the summer house and restored fountains.

Another of the twelve sites – the Quinta das Lágrimas in Coimbra – is now a 5-star hotel. Its 5ha (12-acre) garden is managed by the Inês de Castro Trust, which has two aims. The first is to find a solution to flooding that occurs when the River Mondego meets water running down the steep slopes surrounding the garden; and the second, to update the existing gardens and woodland of Quinta das Lágrimas (see HGR 18). Any work done had to respect the long history of this place.

Research carried out in the Coimbra University archives identified four areas corresponding to four historical periods:

the Middle Ages (from 1326), the 17th, 19th and late 20th centuries. The restoration sought to strengthen the identity of each of these periods by establishing distinct spaces, each with its own role.

The aim in the medieval garden was to restore the water channel walls with impermeable mortar. In the 17th-century area, the focus was on reconstruction and repair of pathways, stairways and the dry-stone walls in the wooded slopes of the gardens. The first cleaning operations in the 19th-century area revealed a system of pathways and rest points in a picturesque style.

The lake restoration process included surgery and pruning of tree roots to reduce the level of damage to walls, and repairs to the cascade and use of a liner to make the lake walls impermeable.

The client wanted a new garden added, so we created a large grass amphitheatre, combined with a water-collection basin. A draining project reduced the peak flows of the area downstream of the slopes, and a buffer basin protected the hotel and spa building from winter floodwaters. The hydraulic engineering consisted of creating a dam 1.2m (4ft) high where water could build up before slowly emptying out.

After the dam was created, the ground was sculpted into a gentle sloping shape. At its centre is a round lake 18m (20 yards) in diameter filled by gravity with water from the ancient Lágrimas spring. This new reserve complies with the EEA Grants’

objective to capture water on hand locally, making it available for irrigation as well as æsthetic purposes. Ecologically nothing was lost and visually much has been gained.

Thanks to restoration projects like these, water has been saved and beauty has returned to the gardens, which are once again open to the public and receiving more visitors than ever. The twelve projects followed international standards and have set precedents in their regions.

The work has also contributed to a more economical and environmentally sustainable use of water, while garden maintenance and biodiversity have been improved. Last but not least, visitors leave these sites with a better knowledge of our garden heritage.

Cristina Castel-Branco is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Lisbon. She is a member of the ICOMOS, UNESCO and Scientific Councils and President of the Institut Européen des Jardins et Paysages.

Top left: The grass amphitheatre at Quinta das Lágrimas, designed by the author and Miguel Coelho de Sousa.

Top right: Pool and fountains at Paço Vitorino, Ponte de Lima, restored by Ana Luisa Soares and Marta Calheiros in 2011.

Left: Water system at the Botanic Garden of Coimbra, restored by Ana Luisa Soares and Teresa Chambel.