GPS coordinates: 39º 13’ 17” N, 8º 53’ 36” W (Palace);
39º 13’ 14” N, 8º 53’ 27” W (Emperors Square).
Diogo Inácio de Pina Manique (1733-1805), Intendent-General of the Police of the Court and Realm, intended to create a large neoclassical settlement on the site that Queen D. Maria I had named in his honor as “Manique do Intendente” in 1791 (instead of “Alcoentrinho”), making it a county seat town. The dismissal of the Intendent in 1803 and his death two years later ended this plan.
A large hexagonal square and a palace remained unfinished. The square was planned as the starting point of six large roads with names of classic flavor, which were the origin of the denomination of “Praça dos Imperadores” [Emperors Square], but they were reduced to small streets.
In Pina Manique’s time, only the town hall and the pillory were completed. With regard to the palace, only a magnificent facade and a central church were built, of a planned complex with a structure that evokes the Royal Palace of Mafra.
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