Europe · Portugal · Sintra
Pena Palace
The story
History of Pena Palace
Ferdinand II's yellow and crimson palace crowning the Sintra hills, a mash-up of Moorish domes, Gothic arches and German towers.
Portugal · Sintra · Romanticism
- Built
- 1842–1854
- Era
- Revival
- Style
- Romanticism
- Country
- Portugal
- Region
- Sintra
- UNESCO
- World Heritage Site
- Coordinates
- 38.788, -9.390
In depth
The fuller history
The castle'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, construction occurred after an apparition of the Virgin Mary. In 1493, John II, accompanied by his wife Leonor of Viseu, made a pilgrimage to the site to fulfill a vow. His successor, Manuel I, was also very fond of this sanctuary, and ordered the construction of a monastery on this site which was donated to the Order of Saint Jerome. For centuries Pena was a small, quiet place for meditation, housing a maximum of eighteen monks.
Key dates
- 1838In 1838, as King consort Ferdinand II, he 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.
- 1842The construction took place between 1842 and 1854, although it was almost completed in 1847: King Ferdinand and Queen Maria II intervened decisively on matters of decoration and symbolism.
- 1889In 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.
Historical summary drawn from Wikipedia. Read the full article.
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