Adjoining the cathedral, the severe granite box of the Paço de Três Escalões (Palace of Three Steps), was originally built as the bishop’s palace. It's now a splendid museum featuring Viseu’s own Vasco Fernandes, known as Grão Vasco (the Great Vasco; 1480–1543) – one of Portugal’s seminal Renaissance painters.
There are two principal floors, one with religious art and 19th-century Portuguese works (check out the moustached lady by José de Almeida Furtado). The top floor has Vasco's majestic canvases and works of other bright lights of the so-called Viseu School. Vasco’s colleague, collaborator and rival Gaspar Vaz merits special attention. Together they spurred each other on to produce some of Portugal’s finest artwork. After five centuries their rich colours and luminous style are still as striking as ever.
