“The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience”. – Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way

Perhaps the most elusive quality of a place such as Palácio Belmonte is the cumulative human experience that it holds. Its walls have borne witness to the experience of countless visitors for two millennia, as surely and secretively as a trusted and loyal friend – cradling them close to its chest, as the wisest and caring of parents. Tradesmen and women, nobility, travellers, poets, artists, children – all full of love, joy, sadness, wonder, frustration and the full spectrum of the human condition. Visitors of all ages, from all corners of the world and since many hundreds of years leave a residue of their individual experience that lingers, carefully hidden. This is the part of this wonderful palace that is perhaps the most elusive, although its most worthy, gift to each visitor.