Pena Palace in Sintra
History
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. In 1493, King João 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.
When
the earthquake of 1755 devastated Lisbon and the surrounding region,
the convent of the Pena fell in ruins. These ruins, on top of the steep
mountains of Sintra, had astonished the young prince D. Fernando. In
1838, he decided to acquire the old convent and all of the surrounding
fences. King Fernando 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.
