Portugal Pictures

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The Palacio Nacional da Pena, above Sintra.

This twisted gothic castle/palace in a thoroughly excessive Germanic Manueline style. Fully loaded with all the options - battlements, domes, towers, ramparts and peculiar statues it was built around 1845 by Queen Maria's husband Ferdinand, in collusion with a Prussian architect.
The outside alone is worth a good long look, but inside hosts a museum that is more or less how it was in 1910 when the revolution came to town and the royal family did a quick disappearing act.
Rooms entirely of Meissen porcelain, life-size statues of black slaves, trompe l'oeil wall paintings, Eiffel furniture and even naughty nude murals painted by Dom Carlos I. The place is uncomfortably stuffed by modern standards but it's not difficult to imagine the royal goings-on here, if the excitable Italian groups will just give you a little elbow room to contemplate it. Try to go early or late in order to savour the place properly.

The shady walk up here is beautiful but buses are on hand to help if necessary. The Moorish Castle, lovely tranquil Pena Park [with a posted 1.5 hour walk], and the simple, troglodyte Capuchin monastery are also nearby.

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