Pena Palace

When I thought of visiting Portugal, I imagined that it would just be continuous stream of old churches. But my visit to Sintra proved that Portugal is anything but just churches and monasteries. There is a hill outside Lisbon where royalty and the wealthy would build residences as a summer house. It is much cooler here in the hills compared to nearby Lisbon. In fact, when we first arrived here in Sintra, there was still fog and I was worried that we wouldn’t get to see nice scenery. All those worries turned out to be unfounded. The fog quickly dissipated and it quickly became warm. Now, we are towards the end of our guided tour where we were brought to one of the most important places here in Sintra – Pena Palace.

We visited quite a few places here in Sintra that I have forgotten what is arguably the most important location here in Sintra. The Pena Palace is also built on top of a hill in Sintra so it can get a little hilly exploring the palace. The palace is a relatively recent construction here in Sintra. There was an original chapel here and subsequently a monastery which was built in this location. However, an earthquakes reduced the place to rubble. In the 1800s, the place was reconstructed as a palace to serve as the summer residence of the Portuguese royalty. These days, it is a museum and some official occasions by the state.

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