2 Best Sights in Northern Portugal, Portugal

An exceptional baroque mansion believed to have been designed by Nicolau Nasoni (architect of Porto's dashing Clérigos Tower), the Casa de Mateus sits 4 km (2½ miles) east of Vila Real. Its U-shape facade—with high, decorated finials at each corner—is pictured on the Mateus Rosé label (though that is the full extent of the association, as the wine's producer is not based here). You may visit the house museum using an audio-guide, but if you take a guided tour (€26) you willl not only also take in the chapel, with its still more extravagant facade, but be free afterwards to explore the formal gardens, which are enhanced by a "tunnel" of cypress trees that shade the path. 

The elegant rooms in this baroque mansion, which houses a museum of the same name, are furnished in 18th-century style and display silver and porcelain collections. The ground floor of the palace is flagstone, which allowed carriages to run through the interior to the stables beyond. At the back of the palace is a formal garden with decorative tiles.