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Sintra, Pena National Palace1

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The Pena National Palace (Palácio Nacional da Pena) is a Romanticist palace in São Pedro de Penaferrim, municipality of Sintra, Portugal. The palace stands on the top of a hill above the town of Sintra, and on a clear day it can be easily seen from Lisbon and much of its metropolitan area.

The Pena National Palace is a national monument and constitutes one of the major expressions of 19th-century Romanticism in the world.

The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. It is also used for state occasions by the President of the Portuguese Republic and other government officials.

The palace's history started in the Middle Ages when a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena was built on the top of the hill above Sintra. According to tradition, the construction occurred after an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

King Manuel I, very fond of this sanctuary, ordered the construction there of a monastery, who was severely damaged by lightning in the 18th century and reduced to ruins by the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.

In 1838, as King consort Ferdinand II, decided to acquire the old monastery, all of the surrounding lands, the nearby Castle of the Moors and a few other estates in the area.

King Ferdinand then set out to transform the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family.

The commission for the Romantic style rebuilding was given to Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, a German amateur architect but King Ferdinand and Queen Maria II intervened decisively on matters of decoration and symbolism.

The construction took place between 1842–1854, although it was almost completed in 1847.

Among others, the King suggested vault arches, Medieval and Islamic elements be included,

and he also designed an exquisitely ornate window for the main façade (inspired by the chapter house window of the Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar)

In 1889 it was purchased by the Portuguese State, and after the Republican Revolution of 1910 it was classified as a national monument and transformed into a museum. The palace quickly drew visitors and became one of Portugal's most visited monuments.

In 1995, the palace and the rest of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra were classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Moorish style gate in the Pena Palace

Moorish style gate in the Pena Palace (details)

Moorish style gate in the Pena Palace (details)

The Pena Palace has a profusion of styles much in accordance with the exotic taste of the Romanticism. The intentional mixture of eclectic styles includes the Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Neo-Islamic and Neo-Renaissance. References to other prominent Portuguese buildings such as the Belém Tower are also present

The Pena Park is a vast forested area completely surrounding the Pena Palace, spreading for over 200 hectares of uneven terrain. The park was created at the same time as the palace by King Ferdinand II, who was assisted in the task by the Baron von Eschwege and the Baron von Kessler. The exotic taste of the Romanticism was applied to the park as it was to the palace. The king ordered trees from diverse, distant lands to be planted there. Those included North American Sequoia, Lawson's Cypress, Magnolia and Western Redcedar, Chinese Ginkgo, Japanese Cryptomeria, and a wide variety of ferns and tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand, concentrated in the Queen's Fern Garden (Feteira da Rainha). The park has a labyrinthic system of paths and narrow roads, connecting the palace to the many points of interest throughout the park, as well as to its two gated exits.

Text: Internet

Pictures: Internet

Sanda Foişoreanu

Gabriela Cristescu

Copyrights of the photos belong to each photographer

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanu

www.slideshare.net/michaelasanda

Sound: Mariza - Promete Jura; Primavera