A wooded hillside in the Sintra hills
This wooded slope above Sintra, Portugal, lies near the Quinta da Penha Verde, whose grounds trace back to a Neolithic settlement, and overlooks Monserrate Palace, where a shrine to Our Lady of Monserrate was rebuilt in 1540 over a chapel said to date from the 1000s, later becoming one of Sintra's most storied landscaped gardens.
A Neolithic site and a shrine precede the later palaces
This point lies on a wooded slope in the hills above Sintra, Portugal, a short walk from several grand old estates. Nearby stands the Quinta da Penha Verde, a site that traces back to a Neolithic settlement, long before any of the later palaces rose here. Just beyond it sits its manor house, the Solar da Quinta da Penha Verde, now protected as a cultural heritage monument. Down the slope, closer to half a mile off, lies the Monserrate Palace estate, where a small chapel to the Virgin Mary is said to have stood since the 1000s, rebuilt in 1540 as a shrine to Our Lady of Monserrate. That shrine, and the ruined farm around it, waited centuries for the English and Portuguese owners who would later turn this hillside into one of Sintra's most storied gardens.
An English merchant builds over a ruined chapel
Gerard de Visme, an English merchant, rented the Monserrate farm in 1789. Gerard de Visme built a new neo-Gothic house over the ruined chapel. In 1793, the English writer William Beckford leased the estate from him and began laying out a landscaped garden.
Lord Byron writes Monserrate into Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
The poet Lord Byron visited Monserrate in 1809, while the house still stood half in ruins. Lord Byron wrote about its beauty in his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. His lines drew foreign travelers to the hillside for decades afterward.
A viscount rebuilds Monserrate in Moorish and Gothic style
Francis Cook, an English merchant, leased the estate in 1856 and bought it outright in 1863. Portugal's King Luís I later gave him the title Viscount of Monserrate. Cook hired the architect James Knowles to rebuild the house over de Visme's old walls, mixing Moorish and Gothic styles into one eclectic palace. Francis Cook filled the grounds with plants gathered from across the world, from Australian tree ferns to Mexican yuccas.
The state buys Monserrate and UNESCO names the hillside
The Portuguese state bought the estate in 1949. The palace was declared a building of public interest in 1978. In 1995, UNESCO named the whole Sintra hillside, Monserrate included, a World Heritage cultural landscape.
Sintra's park authority restores Monserrate for visitors
Sintra's park authority took over the estate's grounds in 2000 and restored the palace for visitors. Monserrate Palace downhill, its rooms and gardens are open to the public today, with the Parque de Monserrate park still growing around it.
The hillside around this point still carries the quiet of the estate gardens laid out beneath it.
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