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To get away from the summer heat, kings and other nobility built castles in Sintra, about an hour train ride east of Lisbon, towards the Atlantic Ocean. For our second touring day we decided to check out the most famous castle, the Palácio Nacional da Pena. It was constructed in the mid-19th century on the ruins of an ancient monastery which was pretty much destroyed by the Great Earthquake of 17551 (which also leveled big swaths of Lisbon, by the way).
Getting to the palace was quite a challenge, as it’s located at the top of steep hill accessible only by a narrow road…which is generally locked into a semi-permanent traffic jam, what with all the cars, buses, bikes, pedestrians and tuk-tuks2 schlepping people up to the palace. It’s apparently on the “must see” list for every tourist who visits Lisbon.
There are separate tickets for the castle itself and the surrounding gardens, which are extensive (although not much was blooming in October). We bought our castle tickets when we arrived mid-morning, and the earliest time we could get was 4 PM. But no matter, we enjoyed wandering around the castle grounds, as well as a very nice lunch in the castle restaurant.
The castle is adorned with a lot of protruding creatures, some of which look like they may channel rain water.
But the decorative creature who takes the grand prize has to be this fellow. How’d you like to have to walk under his angry gaze every time you wanted to enter or exit your home?
The castle features a lot of turrets and balconies, some of which are accessible, and make comfortable resting places.
The views of the Atlantic coast off in the distance were stunning.
Of course, no Portuguese castle would be complete without a hefty dose of tile.
The inside of the castle, once we got inside, was as sumptuous as you’d expect a royal palace to be. There was even an internal courtyard, complete with tile and gargoyles.
I can’t say that the paintings in the castle grabbed my attention. But there were a lot of cool statues! Including this pair of matching, colorful fish. I wonder if they had a use, other than decoration?
There were a lot of other beautiful and interesting statues scattered throughout the palace. I particularly liked the chandelier built around green glass leaves; I’d never seen anything like it.
The turtle was cute, too :).
One type of art I’ve particularly come to enjoy over the years involves furniture and, believe it or not, doors.
Yes, the pieces fulfill an often utilitarian or unappreciated role. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be beautiful…and when I stop to think about all the effort that goes into creating them (having done a tiny, tiny bit of woodwork myself over the years), I’m blown away. Truly labors of love.
And, speaking of statues, if you own a place, you get to fill it with likenesses of yourself :).
All in all, yet another wonderful day in Portugal.
The quake, while “only” a magnitude 7.7, “…profoundly disrupted the Portuguese Empire.“, killing 30,000 – 40,000 people. ↩
tiny two, three, or four person vehicles powered by a small gasoline engine or, more commonly nowadays, a small electric motor ↩
