2-376-865 - Samuel Magal/Sites & Photos/Heritage Images

The hunting trophy room in the Mafra National Palace (Palacio de Mafra), Mafra, Portugal, 2009. The hunting trophy room is decorated with numerous skulls of deer and the furniture is constructed of antlers and covered with deerskin and even the candleholders are made of deer antlers. The Mafra National Palace is a monumental Baroque and Italianised Neoclassical palace-monastery located in Mafra, Portugal. The palace, which also served as a Franciscan monastery, was built during the reign of King John V (1707-1750), in consequence of a vow made by the king in 1711, who promised to build a convent if his wife, the Queen Mary Anne of Austria (1683-1754), gave him descendants. The birth of his first daughter, the princess Barbara of Braganza, made the king initiate the construction of the palace. This vast complex is among the most sumptuous Baroque buildings in Portugal and one of the biggest buildings constructed in Europe in the 18th century.