Pena Palace in Sintra: A trip to an enchanting jewel
Pena Palace is one of the most shining jewels in Sintra. Fruit of the passion of King Consort D. Fernando, it is a mandatory stop.
Pena Palace is, most likely, the most gleaming of Sintra’s jewels. It is an exuberant construction, the mark that D. Fernando II, king-consort of Queen D. Maria II, left the country he adopted as his.
Historically, this place is known to have been occupied since the mid-twelfth century, as there would be a chapel dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Pena. D. Manuel I had more grandiose plans and had the Royal Monastery of Nossa Senhora da Pena built on the site, which would later be handed over to the Order of Saint Jerome. Later, the brutal earthquake that hit Lisbon in 1755 destroyed the monastery almost completely, which was languishing to complete abandonment in the first decades of the 19th century.
It is in 1836 that, even without knowing it, the place of Pena begins to take on a new life. It is in this year that D. Fernando, prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha marries Queen D. Maria II and heads to Portugal. A man of unusual culture, he mastered seven languages and was also a virtuoso in the field of music and design. He was also a great patron of the arts, earning the epithet Artist-King. What does this have to do with Pena Palace? There we go.
Pena Palace: Passion for Sintra
Shortly after arriving in Portugal, D. Fernando fell in love with Sintra (who ever?) and bought, with his own pocket, the ruins of the São Jerónimo monasteries and all the surrounding forest. The initial idea was just to renovate the space for the royal family’s summer residence, but the project grew (under the direction of Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege), eventually acquiring the architectural extravagance we know today.
In the woods, winding paths were traced, towards landmarks or fantastic viewpoints, such as Cruz Alta, Templo das Colunas, Gruta do Monge or Vale dos Lagos. D. Fernando also introduced several plants of different origins, giving rise to an arboreal group practically unparalleled in Portugal.
