Palace Wonderland

Last Saturday, we went back to Sintra(Pls.read my previous post" A visit to the Castle in Sintra",Sept.07, 2007).This time, we are finally visiting the "Palacio da Pena"( Pena Palace)a National Monument built by King Fernando II who fell in love with Sintra when going up the mountain range for the first time and sighted the ruins of an old Convent of Frades originaly built during the reign of King João II and transformed by King Manuel I who ordered it to be reconstructed in praise of Our Lady of Pena, donating it again to the Order of Monks.

Entrance fee for tour to the Park and the Palace cost 8 euros each
Below are the signs showing us the way,followed by hubbys photo at the entrance gate.Then I noticed this group of young people dancing and having fun.We could have taken the classic bus up to the palace for 1.50 euros but we did´nt, thinking that walking way up was not that dificult as it was not that far from the gate.BIG MISTAKE!!



As we reach the Palace, we were enticed by its beauty! Like the ones in the childrens book of princess and prince enchanted kingdom as shown below.Pls click the photos to enlarge



The Palace constitutes one of the major expression of the 19th century romaticism in Portugal.The then young Prince Fernando who acquired the old convent which was devastated by Lisbon eartquake in 1755,began his romantic dream to reconstruct the convent and annex a new part of it to Portugals Royal Family summer residence. Almost the entire Palace stands on spectacular and enormous rock as you can see from the photos above.

The palace has a profusion of different styles and the volume movement has an unusual architecture.The mixture of eclectic styles,(neo-gothic, neo-manueline.neo islamic.neo-renaissance and among other styles)are intentional.Details of different styles will be shown below.

First photo is the main gate and the two watch towers above it.Next is another entrance door,colums or pilars,doors,windows and many more details that i could only post some of it for now.