Pena Palace

The Palácio da Pena stands on a forested peak of the Serra de Sintra above the UNESCO-listed village of Sintra, its polychrome towers and Romantic pastiche of Gothic, Manueline, Moorish, and Renaissance elements visible for miles across the Tagus estuary. Commissioned by King Ferdinand II in the 1840s on the ruins of a medieval monastery, it is the most extravagant surviving royal residence in Portugal. The surrounding park, planted with exotic trees and crossed by garden paths, is itself noteworthy.