King Carlos Alberto of Savoy King of Italy and of Sardinia, lost a battle against the Austrians. From Venice he left on a ship to London. He was very sick and asked the commander to land in the nearest town. It turned out to be Porto. He landed at Foz and entered Cedofeita, staying at a hotel in the Palácio Balsemão. When he was in town, the Mayor sent the military band out to greet him and offer him the keys of the city. That he refused because he was so bad. Joaquim Pinto Basto, possibly the founder of Vista Alegre, knew and offered him his house, Quinta da Macieirinha where is the current Romantic Museum which included the gardens of the “Crystal Palace” or Rosa Mota Pavilion. Shortly after he died. His sister had this chapel built to bury him. The Chapel of King Carlos Alberto, is a romantic cenotaph, surrounded by the Crystal Palace Gardens in Porto. It was built in the late 1850s, at the initiative of Princess Augusta de Montléart, in memory of her half brother, the King of Piedmont-Sardinia, Carlos Alberto. When his son, King Victor Emanuel, unified Italy and expelled the Austrians, he moved the casket to the Savoy Pantheon in Turin. Where is also his daughter, Queen Maria Pia, wife of our King D. Luis I, and the chapel passed to the possession of the House of Bragança. D. Manuel II, in his will bequeaths to the Misericórdia of Porto the palace of the Carrancas, future Soares dos Reis National Museum precisely on Rua D. Manuel II. After the monarch’s death, the state expropriates the institution of the building for the current museum. At that time, D. Manuel’s wife and Queen Mother D. Amelia ask to Misericórdia to maintain the chapel, which was already part of the gardens of the Crystal Palace. The chapel got its name – Carlos Alberto. In the Romantic Museum the furniture in the room where he died went to Italy. There are copies in the same place, which you can visit for free on Sundays and from Tuesday to Saturday for a token entry.
