The All Saints Hospital (Todos os Santos hospital) of Lisbon purchased a farm estate on top of a hill overlooking Sintra and in 1540 constructed a chapel there, dedicating it to Our Lady of Monserrate. During the 17th century, the Mello e Castro family bought the estate. The chapel and farmhouse on the property was severely damaged during the 1755 earthquake and the farmhouse was deemed unlivable. Thirty four years later, merchant Gerard de Visme rented the estate and built a neo-Gothic style home over the ruins of the chapel. By 1809, the property had become disheveled when Lord Byron visited the area. Still, he found the grounds to be "magnificent" and mentioned it in his poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." A wealthy English merchant, Francis Cook, subleased the estate in 1856. After he was given the title of Viscount of Monserrate by King D. Louis in 1858, Cook began extensive restorations. The grounds around his new palace were landscaped with a lake, several springs, fountains, and grottos. As with the rest of Sintra, the Palace of Monserrate was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995, and a year later, it appeared briefly in the tv miniseries "Gulliver's Travels."
Mentioned in Lord Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and briefly a part of the "Gulliver's Travels" television show, the Palace of Monserrate is one of Sintra's top tourist attractions. On the road to the palace is this "Arch of India." Francis Cook purchased this piece following the 1857 Revolt of the Maharajas (its upper half is missing). Opposite the Arch of India is one on the many fish ponds on the property. One of the more beautiful private residence rotundas (as viewed from the second floor balcony) we've seen. Old photo of the magnificent sculptured main staircase in its heyday. How would you like to have this as a music room? Looking down one of the main corridors off of the rotunda. The Cook family certainly liked the look of gold. While it was nice to be able to explore the palace, we were a bit disappointed that the rooms (such as this second floor bedroom) weren't furnished with period pieces. We had somewhat of a hard time fully appreciating their lifestyle because of this. Still, the grounds surrounding the palace were magnificent. We really could understand why Lord Byron fell in love with this estate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Carl and Lorraine Aveni are two retirees planning on traveling through Europe for at least one year.
Archives
September 2020
Categories |