Sintra Pena National Palace - Portugal - UNESCO World Heritage Site
http://portogallo.com/ - 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.
The entrance
The palace seen from above
A view of the palace through the arch of the
Seteais Palace down the slope
In 1493,
King John II, accompanied by his wife
Queen Leonor, made a pilgrimage to the site to fulfill a vow. His successor,
King Manuel I, was also very fond of this sanctuary, and ordered the construction there of a monastery 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
.
In the 18th century the monastery was severely damaged by lightning. However, it was the
Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, occurring shortly afterwards,
that took the heaviest toll on the monastery, reducing it to ruins. Nonetheless, the chapel (and its magnificent works of marble and alabaster attributed to
Nicolau Chanterene) escaped without significant damage.
For many decades the ruins remained untouched, but they still astonished young prince
Ferdinand. In 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.
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 Lieutenant-General and mining engineer
Baron Wilhelm
Ludwig von Eschwege. Eschwege, a
German amateur architect, was much traveled and likely had knowledge of several castles along the
Rhine river. The construction took place between 1842--1854, although it was almost completed in 1847: King Ferdinand and
Queen Maria II intervened decisively on matters of decoration and symbolism. 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).
After the death of Ferdinand the palace passed into the possession of his second wife
Elisa Hensler,
Countess of
Edla. The latter then sold the palace to King Luís, who wanted to retrieve it for the royal family, and thereafter the palace was frequently used by the family. 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 last queen of
Portugal, Queen
Amélia, spent her last night at the palace before leaving the country in exile.
The palace quickly drew visitors and became one of Portugal's most visited monuments. 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, much to the dismay of many Portuguese who were not aware that the palace had once displayed such chromatic variety.
In
1995, the palace and the rest of the
Cultural Landscape of Sintra were classified as a
World Heritage Site by
UNESCO.
(
Source :
Wikipedia )