Palácio Nacional da Pena

The National Palace of Pena rises above the hills as a romantic fantasy turned into stone. Dreamed up by Ferdinand the Second, the Artist King, it grew from the transformation of a former Hieronymite monastery into a summer palace for the royal family, where nineteenth-century taste blends medieval, Manueline, Moorish and Renaissance references without losing its harmony. Inside, the old church, cloister and apartments preserve the memory of a place once lived in; outside, Triton’s Terrace offers one of the palace’s most fascinating details, with its hybrid figure symbolically linking the aquatic and terrestrial worlds. From the Courtyard of Arches, too, the scenic ambition of Pena becomes clear, framing the hills, the park and the Atlantic as part of the palace itself. It was here that Queen Amélia received the news of the proclamation of the Republic. Few places tell so well the story of dream, power and the end of an era.