Palácio Nacional da Pena

The Park and the Palácio da Pena, implanted in the hills of Sintra and fruit of the creative genius of D. Fernando II, are the maximum exponent of Romanticism of the 19th century in Portugal, with architectural references of Manueline and Moorish influence.
The Palace was built to be observed from any point of the Park, forest and lush gardens with more than five hundred tree species from the four corners of the world.
The Pena Palace rises on a steep rock, which is the second highest point of the Serra de Sintra (above the palace is only Cruz Alta, 528m high). The Palace is located in the eastern part of the Parque da Pena, which is necessary to travel to get to the steep ramp that the Baron de Eschwege built to access the cadastral building. The Palace itself consists of two wings: the old Manueline convent of the Order of St. Jerome and the wing built in the nineteenth century by D. Fernando II. These wings are surrounded by a third architectural structure, in which an imaginary round-trip castle with merlons and battlements, watchtowers, an access tunnel and even a drawbridge are imagined.
The most interesting building in Pena Park is the Chalet da Condessa (or Casa do Regalo), which is located at the western end of Pena Park. It was built by D. Fernando II and his future second wife, Elise Hensler (Countess of Edla), as a reserved summer resort. It is a two-storey building with a strong scenic load, of alpine inspiration, that maintained an expressive visual relation with the Palace.
The Pena Palace was classified as a National Monument in 1910 and is part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra, classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 1995. In 2013 it became part of the European Royal Residences Network.