Pena Palace: A hilltop chapel became a monastery, t...

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The chapel

A hilltop chapel became a monastery, then a ruin

A chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena was built on the hill above Sintra. Manuel I ordered a monastery there, given to the Order of Saint Jerome, which housed a maximum of eighteen monks. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake reduced it to ruins, but the chapel escaped without significant damage.

The prince

A prince bought the ruins in 1838 and rebuilt them as a summer home

Prince Ferdinand was astonished by the ruins. In 1838, as King consort Ferdinand II, he bought the old monastery, the lands around it and the nearby Castle of the Moors. Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, a German amateur architect, was given the rebuilding. Construction took place between 1842 and 1854.

Styles

The mixture of styles is intentional and follows Romantic taste

The palace mixes Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Neo-Islamic and Neo-Renaissance styles. The King suggested vault arches and Medieval and Islamic elements, and designed an ornate window for the main façade. Some references are to other Portuguese buildings, such as the Belém Tower.

1910

In 1910 the palace became a national monument and a museum

The Portuguese State bought the palace in 1889. After the Republican Revolution of 1910 it was classified as a national monument and turned into a museum. Queen Amélia, the last queen of Portugal, spent her last night there before leaving the country in exile.

The colors

The red and yellow walls faded to gray and were repainted

Over time the colors of the red and yellow façades faded, and for many years the palace was visually identified as being entirely gray. By the end of the 20th century the palace was repainted and the original colors restored.

Day 1, morning

Next is Castle of the Moors.

See it in the plan

Pena Palace