The Palacio Nacional de Mafra is nominated for inscription in 2019, reason enough to include Mafra in my itinerary for my Portugal Trip in May 2018. The palace is huge, the front is 220 meters long, it seems completely oversized for the small town. The Palace-Convent complex was built in the 18th century and was paid with the gold from the colony of Brazil. When visiting the palace, you have to walk through an endless number of rather uninteresting rooms, worth mentioning are only the hospital and the library (photo). The library is certainly impressive, but you can not properly visit, only the first meters are accessible.
The nomination also includes the Cerco Garden behind the palace, not outstanding, and the hunting grounds, the Tapada Nacional de Mafra. There are several marked trails and even guided tours that start from an information centre about 8 km northwest of the palace. However, I did not visit the Tapada, I thought I had enough hiking the days before at Sintra.
Mafra is certainly of national importance, it is considered the most important baroque building in Portugal, but not enough to justify a WHS in my opinion. What I will remember from Mafra is mainly the long indoor hike.