Monserrate Palace is a stately home situated about 4 km. Sintra center that, such as we see today dates from the mid-nineteenth century. The leafy park surrounding it is one of the most prominent examples of romantic gardens of Portugal, the result of the contribution of its successive occupants and owners.
A little history
Around the year 1540 in the field, known as Quinta da Bela Vista, was part of the dominions of the All Saints Hospital, Lisbon. Frei Gaspar Preto, then hospital administrator, had made a pilgrimage to the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat, in Catalonia, and returning in the fifth build a chapel in honor of Nossa Senhora de Monserrate sent.
In 1601 the fifth of Monserrate was granted for exploitation Caetano de Mello e Castro, Viceroy of India, family finally bought in 1718 Since then the property was exploited through attorneys who chose to tenants or occupants of the house, who were holding deal, and the maintenance of the units. Of those homes had no almost nothing after the 1755 earthquake.
In 1790, a wealthy English merchant named Gerard Devisme leased Monserrate and neo-Gothic mansion was built, but in 1794 decided to sub-lease the property to William Beckford. Beckford used a small part of his vast fortune to reform the palace and moved the first works on the refurbishment of the romantic garden, integrating existing ruins, a cromlech (kind of megalithic monument consisting of stones) and an existing natural waterfall.
Just a year later, Beckford definitely leave the country and the fifth goes into decline. In 1809, the famous poet Lord Byron laments visit Monserrate and find empty and neglected so beautiful palace.
Salvation came in 1856 when Francis Cook, English millionaire textile merchant, bought the fifth Mello e Castro, sent remake the palace and put a huge English-style park.
Summoning the English architect James T. Knowles, William Stockdale landscaper, botanist and gardener William Nevill James Burt, the romantic spirit of Sir Francis Cook, appointed in 1870 Visconde de Monserrate, reflected different areas in the park: a sector with ferns ancestral and Australian pine, a Mexican garden, camellias and azaleas from Japan, all growing harmoniously with local plants, brought together by winding paths and complemented with ruins, waterfalls and lakes. The gardens were completed only in 1929.
The Cook family tried to sell the property to the Portuguese government in 1946, but eventually was Saul Sáragga antiquarian who acquired it. The state bought it in 1947 but by then Sáragga had sold all goods of the palace.
From 2001 carried out an extensive project to restore the building, seriously damaged, which in a first stage and allowed to recover outside the gardens. A second step could be concluded between 2008-2009 will allow return to the palace interiors all its glory.
Visit the palace and park
The sculpture of a chimera greets visitors at the door, wanting perhaps mean entry into a fantasy world. The route leads along the paths of this typically English garden where, as we mentioned, grow copies of all continents by the local flora in apparent disorder, but whose disposition obeys actually planning and work of many years. The Jardim do Mexico, Japan and the Jardim do Vale dos utero (valley of ferns) are distinct spaces, but there have been over 2500 species scattered throughout the park.
Facing the castle, the grass covers the uneven ground like a carpet; the first sod was planted in Portugal it had an irrigation system to keep it evergreen, back in the second half of the nineteenth century ...
Heading into the palace is the "Caminho Scented", a path lined with jasmine and wisteria arbors in spring broadcast their characteristic aromas.
The building, more like an exquisite country house than a palace, it appears reclining on a slope of the park.
The three constituent bodies, topped by red onion domes, Gothic-inspired show windows on the facades. Gothic is also the pediment of the door. Towards the park gives a balcony with Moorish arches decorated with tiles.
Inside, the exuberant decoration of stucco accentuates the oriental character of the building, especially in the "Music Room". At the moment only one sector of the palace can be visited, awaiting the completion of the restoration work. It is striking, especially after visiting the Regaleira and Pena Palace, this palace is completely empty.
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