My latest Door of the Month is a bit closer to home (for me) than usual. It’s a door to a place where creative expression, viticulture, art and nature come together.
We rented a car to do some day trips from our home in Lisbon during a recent long weekend away from work. We drove to Bombarral, about an hour away.
As we pulled into Portuguese wine producer Bacalhôa’s Buddha Eden, my eyes were immediately drawn to the door of Quinta dos Loridos, the entrance to this spectacular and very zen 35 hectare park.
We’d visited two of Bacalhôa’s cultural locations previously–their vineyard and art museum in Azeitão and their Art Deco mansion (aka Berardo – Museu Arte Deco) in Lisbon’s Alcântara neighborhood. We noticed that each location features some works of art painted in an electric blue; the blue of this spectacular door.
While we didn’t get to open this specific door, we did open a figurative door to a very special park filled with monumental works of Buddhist art created using thousands of tons of marble and granite. Buddha Eden was inspired by a desire to recreate the thousand year old buddhist statues in Afghanistan that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
We also discovered giant modern art sculptures of African animals crafted out of scrap metal. We felt like we’d been transported to the Serengeti (or back to our vacation in Uganda).
Places like this remind me that it’s important to stay curious and not take the places close to home for granted. Even a day trip can be a fulfilling adventure.
I wasn’t expecting to find the door of the month on this day trip, but I’m so glad that I did!
![The Spectacular Doors of Pestana Palace Lisboa [Door(s) of the Month May 2026]](https://doors.sidewalksafari.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/pestana-palace-lisboa-doors11.jpg)
