Monserrate Palace

Monserrate Palace is the least-visited of Sintra's main palaces and arguably the most romantic. Located about 4 km west of the town, it sits in a large botanical garden and combines Indian, Gothic, and Moorish architectural styles in a building that manages to be exotic and elegant simultaneously. The park surrounding it contains an extraordinary range of plants from across the temperate world, assembled by Victorian collectors.

The interior restoration is ongoing and partial — some rooms are complete, others still show bare masonry — which gives the whole place a pleasingly unfinished, slightly melancholy atmosphere. The gardens are well worth an hour of wandering, and the walk between Sintra town and Monserrate through the protected landscape is one of the better options for those who want to move between palaces on foot.

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A story
The Monserrate estate was briefly occupied by William Beckford — the eccentric English millionaire author of Vathek — in the late 18th century, who landscaped the gardens in the English Romantic style. Later, Sir Francis Cook, a wealthy Victorian textile merchant, built the current palace and extended the gardens with plants from all over the world. The botanical collection now spans specimens from Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, all growing in the Sintra microclimate.

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