Castelo Branco - Jardim Episcopal

Castelo Branco's principal attraction is the Jardim Episcopal, formerly the Bishop's gardens and certainly one of the loveliest Baroque gardens in Portugal. The terraced gardens, laid out in the early 18th century for Dom Joao de Mendoça, are a showpiece of Baroque extravagance and fantasy, with carefully clipped trees and shrubs, elaborately patterned flowerbeds and a profusion of basins and fountains. There is also a lavish display of Baroque sculpture - archangels, evangelists, apostles, allegorical figures, animals and, flanking a flight of steps, the complete series of Portuguese kings with the Spanish Hapsburg kings (1580-1640) rather pointedly represented by much smaler figures.