Pena Palace, Sintra: A Visitor’s Guide

Seen from the coast road or the streets of Sintra below, Pena Palace looks almost improbable: a cluster of red and yellow towers, battlements and domes on a granite crag above a forest, often half lost in the mist that rolls in from the Atlantic. It was the creation of one man, Ferdinand II, a German prince who married into the Portuguese royal family and spent decades turning a ruined monastery into a summer palace of pure Romantic fantasy. UNESCO calls it a work of pure Romanticism, in what it describes as the first centre of European Romantic architecture. This guide covers the palace’s history, what to look for inside and in the park, and the practical side of a visit: timed entry, how long to allow and how much climbing is involved. On Day 3 of our Discover Portugal small group tour, the group arrives at Pena Palace early in the day, ahead of the crowds.

From hilltop monastery to royal palace

The story of Pena begins long before the palace. According to Parques de Sintra, which manages the site, a chapel stood on the summit by the twelfth century, built after reported apparitions of the Virgin. In 1503 King Manuel I ordered a new religious house here, the Royal Monastery of Our Lady of Pena, later given to the Order of Saint Jerome, the same order he installed at Belém. The monks lived on this exposed peak for more than three centuries. The great earthquake of 1755 damaged the monastery but did not bring it down, and when Portugal dissolved its religious orders in 1834 the buildings were abandoned.

Parts of that monastery survive inside the palace. The small cloister, built in 1511 and at the time of writing seen only on the Complete Visit route that includes the private apartments, is lined with Hispano-Moorish tiles made by the cuerda seca technique, in which raised lines keep the coloured glazes apart. The former church, now the palace chapel, keeps its alabaster and limestone altarpiece, carved between 1529 and 1532 by the French-born sculptor Nicolas Chanterene for João III, Manuel I’s son.

Ferdinand II, the King-Artist

The man who saved the ruin was Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a nephew of Leopold I of Belgium, who married Queen Maria II of Portugal in 1836 and took the title of king consort after the birth of their heir. Ferdinand spoke seven languages and was an artist, collector and patron of the arts all his life, and the Portuguese came to know him as the King-Artist. Soon after arriving he fell for Sintra, and in 1838 he bought the derelict monastery and the hillside around it out of his own fortune.

His first idea was simply to restore the monastery as a summer residence. Instead, he added an entirely new palace alongside it, with the building work supervised by Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, a German mineralogist and mining engineer then living in Portugal. The result has two wings: the Old Palace, which is the converted monastery, and the New Palace, with its state rooms. Around them Ferdinand set the trappings of a medieval castle that never needed to defend anything: parapet walks, lookout towers, an access tunnel and a working drawbridge.

After Maria II died in 1853, aged just 34, Ferdinand lived in the old monastery wing, later with his second wife, the opera singer Elise Hensler, who was made Countess of Edla. The pair built an Alpine-style chalet in the western part of the park. In the 1890s King Carlos I and Queen Amélia made Pena a summer home again, and the queen was in the palace on 5 October 1910 when news arrived that Portugal had become a republic. She left for Mafra and then Ericeira, where the royal family sailed into exile. That same year the palace was classified as a National Monument.

Reading Pena Palace’s architecture

Pena Palace is deliberately theatrical. The UNESCO listing for the Cultural Landscape of Sintra, inscribed in 1995, describes the castle Ferdinand created as a mixture of Gothic, Egyptian, Moorish and Renaissance elements, and calls nineteenth-century Sintra the first centre of European Romantic architecture. Ferdinand quoted freely from Portuguese buildings he admired. The Monumental Gate, the first entrance you reach, has sentry boxes modelled on those of the Tower of Belém, and walls studded with diamond-shaped stones like Lisbon’s Casa dos Bicos. Beyond it the drawbridge leads into a tunnel that climbs to the upper courtyards.

The colours are part of the design. Parts of the palace are painted a deep red and others a strong ochre yellow, with grey stonework, carved window frames and panels of blue and white tile in between. On a grey day the effect is sombre, and in sun it can look almost unreal.

The single most photographed detail is the Triton gateway. Parques de Sintra explains it as a passage between two worlds. The lower part belongs to the sea, with a neo-Gothic arch encrusted with coral and shells and a triton, half man and half fish, crouching above it. From his head grows a tree, and stone grape vines spread over the bay window he appears to be carrying, so the upper part belongs to the land.

What do you see inside Pena Palace?

Inside, Pena Palace feels less like a castle than a lived-in royal house, with rooms furnished and decorated as the royal family used them. In the New Palace, the Great Hall, once a billiards room and the largest room in the palace, keeps a 72-candle chandelier and part of Ferdinand’s collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain. The Stag Room, where banquets were held, has stag heads in plaster carrying real antlers, a nod to the hunting halls of German Romantic castles. In the chapel, look for the stained-glass window Ferdinand commissioned in 1840 from the Kellner workshop in Nuremberg. The kitchen still holds its copper pans and a set of moulds marked P.P., for Palácio da Pena.

The old monastery wing holds the private apartments, which give a more intimate picture of royal life: small rooms around the cloister, including the bedroom of Ferdinand II and the rooms used by King Carlos and Queen Amélia. At the time of writing, these private apartments are only included in a separate visit format, while the standard palace ticket covers the New Palace, its terraces and the park, so check what your ticket includes.

The terraces and the views

For many visitors the terraces are the highlight. The palace sits close to the top of the Sintra Hills, and from the sentry walk that circles it Parques de Sintra lists views over the Moorish Castle, the Quinta da Regaleira and the Palace of Seteais, the beaches of Sintra and Ericeira, and the great convent at Mafra to the north. On very clear days you can see the Berlengas Islands far out to sea. From the Queen’s Terrace, a favourite of Carlos and Amélia, the view runs from the Atlantic to Lisbon.

The Park of Pena

The palace is only part of what Ferdinand made here. Around it he laid out some 85 hectares of park, planted with trees from every continent; Parques de Sintra describes it as the most important arboretum in Portugal. Winding paths lead to viewpoints and follies: the Temple of Columns, the Grotto of the Monk, the Valley of the Lakes and the Queen’s Fern Valley, where tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand grow in the damp shade. The camellias Ferdinand introduced in the 1840s flower in winter. The High Cross, at 528 metres, marks the highest point of the Sintra Hills. The Chalet of the Countess of Edla, whose reconstruction by Parques de Sintra won a Europa Nostra award in 2013, sits on the western side of the park.

Is Pena Palace worth visiting?

Yes: Pena Palace is the most striking single building in Sintra and the clearest expression of the Romantic taste that shaped the whole hillside. Its interiors are well preserved, its terraces give some of the finest views in the Sintra Hills, and seeing it explains much of what you will see later at places like Quinta da Regaleira. The main drawbacks are the crowds and the climb, and both can be managed with a booked time slot and sensible shoes.

How long do you need at Pena Palace?

Allow about two to three hours for the palace, terraces and a short walk in the park, and longer if you want to explore the park properly. Parques de Sintra advises allowing around 30 minutes just to get from the park entrance to the palace door, before you have seen a single room. The terraces also tend to hold people longer than they expect, so do not plan the rest of the day too tightly.

How do you avoid the queues at Pena Palace?

Book a timed ticket in advance and arrive in good time, because entry to the palace interior is only at the date and time on your ticket. At the time of writing, Parques de Sintra states that there is no tolerance for late arrival, that tickets cannot be changed or refunded for a missed slot, and that early arrivals must wait. Parques de Sintra also says that afternoons are currently the quietest time inside the palace and suggests spending the morning in the park; our tour group goes early in the day instead, before the crowds build. The park opens before the palace, and private cars cannot drive up from the historic centre, so plan how you will reach the gate. Check current opening hours and ticket conditions on the official Parques de Sintra website before you go.

How much walking is involved at Pena Palace?

A fair amount, much of it uphill. From the main entrance of the park, the shortest route to the palace is about 380 metres but includes stairs, while the step-free route is about 600 metres; Parques de Sintra describes the final ramp to the palace door as some 90 metres long, with gradients of up to 18 per cent in places. A paid shuttle runs between the park entrance and the foot of the palace, but that last ramp still has to be climbed on foot. Inside, the route involves stairs throughout and is not accessible to visitors with reduced mobility, and the terraces have uneven stone underfoot. Good walking shoes and a light layer for the hilltop mist are sensible at any time of year.

Pena Palace on Day 3 of the tour

Pena Palace opens a full day in Sintra and along the coast. The group travels out from Lisbon early to explore the palace before the crowds build, then moves down to Sintra town to try the travesseiros, puff pastries filled with almond cream, from the Piriquita bakery. Our guide to the town of Sintra and its royal retreats covers the historic centre in more depth. The day continues at the Quinta da Regaleira, with its grottoes and tunnels, then heads to Cape Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, and along the coast road for free time in Cascais before returning to Lisbon; see our guide to Cascais and the cliffs of Cabo da Roca.

The tour is rated Level 2, Moderate: three to five hours of activity a day, with up to 8 kilometres of walking on uneven ground. An Odyssey Program Leader travels with the group throughout. If you are planning time in Lisbon before or after the tour, our list of the best day trips from Lisbon sets Sintra alongside other options, and our wider Portugal travel guide puts Sintra in the context of the whole country.

Pena Palace makes most sense when you see it as part of a whole landscape of palaces, gardens and viewpoints that Ferdinand and those who followed him built across the Sintra Hills. On the Discover Portugal tour, a small group of up to 16 travellers explores it early in the day with an Odyssey Program Leader, before Sintra town, Quinta da Regaleira and the Atlantic coast.