Sintra is famous for some of Portugal's most visited tourist attractions, including the Pena Palace. According to tradition, a chapel was built on the top of the hill above Sintra after an apparition of the Virgin Mary.
King Manuel I 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.
The monastery was severely damaged by lightning and later reduced to ruins by the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755; only the chapel and its marble and alabaster works escaped without significant damage.
In 1838, King Consort Ferdinand II acquired the old monastery, surrounding lands, the nearby Castle of the Moors, and other estates. 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.
17 сен 2024
