The Monserrate Palace is one of the best illustrations of the Romantic architecture in Sintra. The original building was built in the 18th century in imitation of a medieval castle.
The park and palace of Monserrate, formerly a farm with fruit orchards and crop fields, were first imagined by Gerard DeVisme, who rented the farm from the Melo e Castro family in the 18th century. He decided to raise a Neo-Gorhic style mansion that was later inhabited by the English writer William Beckford and, later, by Francis Cook.
In 1858, after a period when the building was abandoned, Francis Cook delivered the reconstruction project to the architect James Knowles Jr. The building acquired then its current look. The project of the Palace of Monserrate included still the creation of the prosperous Park of Monserrate, where the landscape painter William Stockdale, the botanist William Nevill and the master gardener James Burt, created the contrasting scenarios that are to be found in the park, where narrow winding footpaths intertwine amongst ruins, nooks and crannies, waterfalls and lakes, in what, at first sight, seems to be an apparently disordered fashion.
The Palace and the Park of Monserrate are located at about 4 km from Sintra’s historical centre. Only the Park is opened for visitors, everyday of week, since the Palace is now closed for the Public.
Last admission: an hour before closing.