Royal Palace of Queluz

The Queluz National Palace is one of the most emblematic and best-preserved royal gardens of the 18th century. Inherited by D. Pedro together with the Casa do Infantado, it was the focus of the infant's attention, who carried out works to transform the old Castelo Rodrigo’s estate into a sophisticated garden in keeping with the fashion of European royal palaces, which since the inauguration of Versailles took the French garden as a model.

In addition to being one of the emblematic and well preserved, Queluz is also one of the best documented cases and, therefore, there are studies on the palace, the garden, its sculpture, festivals and ephemeral art, the decorative arts, and even on the hydraulic system. However, the research carried out by AQUA went in another direction. From the perspective of the history of science and technology, AQUA’s team is interested in looking at Queluz as a product of glamour, but also of expertise.

Traditional knowledge used in water management was analysed depleting an unprecedented methodology, which crossed historical research with mathematical models created by hydraulic engineers to measure the energy and water balance of water consumption in gardens. For the first time, not only was the water consumption of a historic garden calculated, but this consumption was compared with that of two contemporary gardens, unequivocally revealing the sustainability and efficiency of the 18th century hydraulic system.

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