The Artist King

We woke up early this morning and headed for the train station and a 7 am trip to the coastal hill town of Sintra. Sintra is the site of the Pena  Palace complex and surrounding park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Both the palace and the park were created by King Ferdinand II, king of Portugal from 1837-1853.

In keeping with what I said in my last post, this mash-up, Portuguese/Moorish/Arabesque meets German Romanticism castle was built upon, and incorporated into its own structure, a very run down 16th century monastery. Pena became the summer palace for Ferdinand and Queen Maria II and was a wonderful place to escape the heat and humidity of the lowlands.

Queen Maria II died young and unexpectedly in 1853 and so Ferdinand II lost the title of “king” because, actually, he had only been consort king—a king only because he married a real queen. So, even  though he was from the royal line in Germany, in Portugal he was demoted to Duke, or Count, or some such relative low life. So, basically, he retired to the summer palace and went to a lot of opera, where he met his second wife—a Swiss American (scandal, scandal!) Elise Hensler, and married her 10 years later (she was known as Countess Edla once they were married.

Countess Edla also loved Pena, especially the park, and over the 20 years of their marriage, the two of them transformed 200 hectares into a forest of trees and plants from all over the world (there are a few Western Red Cedars in that park that rival the biggest ones I’ve seen in the North Cascades!) Bryn and I spent hours today, after our tour of the palace, walking almost every trail in the park—its actually a spectacularly beautiful place.

The most amazing thing, to me, about the palace was the extensive and exquisite tile work. Every single wall was inlaid with tile—of all colors and designs, some geometric, some floral, some a pictoral story. It was fabulous! And the way the remains of the monastery were layered into the living quarters in the palace was a pretty creative architectural work. 

Bryn and I were reminded today, in a very real and difficult way, how precious  our lives are. It seems so trite to say, but there kind of aren’t any other words that fit. I’m really thankful to be sharing this time in Portugal, and later in

Spain, with my friend.