Pena Palace

Perched atop a hill in the Sintra Mountains, the Pena Palace is a Romanticist castle in São Pedro de Penaferrim, within the municipality of Sintra, on the Portuguese Riviera. On clear days, it is visible from Lisbon and much of the surrounding metropolitan area. It serves as a national monument, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal, and is primarily a museum and tourist attraction, not regularly used for state functions (the official state residence is Belém Palace).

The site’s history reaches back to the Middle Ages, when a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena was built on the hilltop, reportedly following an apparition of the Virgin Mary. In 1493, King Manuel I and his wife made a pilgrimage there to fulfill a vow. His successor, Manuel I, also favored the sanctuary and ordered a monastery built on the site, donating it to the Order of Saint Jerome. For centuries, it housed up to eighteen monks in quiet meditation. In the 18th century, lightning severely damaged the monastery, and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake reduced it to ruins, though the chapel—with its marble and alabaster works attributed to Nicolau Chanterene—survived largely intact.

The ruins remained untouched for decades, but they captivated young Prince Ferdinand. In 1838, as King consort Ferdinand II, he acquired the old monastery, surrounding lands, the nearby Castle of the Moors, and other estates. He set out to transform the monastery remains into a summer palace for the Portuguese royal family. The Romantic-style rebuilding was entrusted to Lieutenant-General and mining engineer Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, a German amateur architect familiar with Rhine river castles. Construction ran from 1842 to 1854, though it was nearly complete by 1847. King Ferdinand and Queen Maria II heavily influenced the decoration and symbolism, with the King suggesting vault arches, Medieval and Islamic elements, and designing an ornate window for the main façade inspired by the chapter house window of the Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar.

After Ferdinand’s death, the palace passed to his second wife, Elisa Hensler, Countess of Edla, who sold it to King Luís to return it to the royal family. It was then frequently used by the family. In 1889, the Portuguese State purchased it, and after the Republican Revolution of 1910, it was classified as a national monument and turned