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The chapel
A chapel built in 1540 stood on the hill before the palace
According to legend, Afonso Henriques built a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary here. Another chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Monserrate, was built on top of the hill in 1540. After the 1755 Lisbon earthquake the farmhouse became unlivable.
De Visme
An English merchant built a neo-Gothic house over the ruins in 1789
Gerard de Visme rented the farm in 1789 and built a neo-Gothic house over the ruins of the chapel. In 1793 and 1794 William Thomas Beckford subleased the estate and started to design a landscaped garden.
Byron
Lord Byron visited in 1809 and wrote of Monserrate in a poem
The property was still in ruins when Lord Byron visited in 1809. Its appearance inspired the poet, who mentioned Monserrate in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. After that, the property drew the attention of foreign travelers.
Francis Cook
Francis Cook bought the estate in 1863 and hired James Knowles
Francis Cook, a wealthy English merchant, subleased the estate in 1856 and was given the title of Viscount of Monserrate by Luís I. He bought it in 1863 and worked with the architect James Knowles on the remains of the house built by de Visme.
Design
The palace is Moorish Revival and the park is planted by region
The design drew on Romanticism and Mudéjar Moorish Revival architecture with neo-Gothic elements. The park holds plants organized by geographical areas, among them tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand and agaves and yuccas from Mexico.
Day 2, morning
Next is Quinta da Regaleira.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Monserrate Palace, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.