Wood and stone carvings in the Palácio de Pena near Sintra, Portugal

This has to be one of the world's most bonkers palaces. The Palácio de Pena was built between 1842 and 1854 by the king-consort, Don Fernando II, together with his wife Dona Maria II and their friend Baron Von Eschwege.

Image from http://casadovalle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/pena-palace.html

It is based around a monastery on the site that had origins in the twelfth century and was dedicated to Our Lady of Pena. The monastery went into decline after a great earthquake in the eighteenth century and was bought by the king in 1838, after religious orders in Portugal died out in 1834.

The palace was one of the first buildings in Europe to be constructed in the Romantic tradition, and is a mash-up of architectural styles: Arabic, Manueline Portuguese and Gothic all have their part.

It is filled with incredible pieces of artwork in ceramic, wood, stone and metal. The centre of the palace is built around the original sixteenth-century monastery cloisters, decorated with Hispano-Arabic tiles from around 1520:

Perhaps the most famous carving in the Palace is this one over the front courtyard, which represents Triton and illustrates the birth of the world:

The outside courtyards have some other impressive stone carvings overlooking them:

Little carved decorative details are everywhere as you walk through the buildings:

I am curious about who the caricature faces below are supposed to represent. King Don Manuel I gave the convent of Our Lady of Pena (around which the palace is built) to the Order of the Hieronymites in 1503, after becoming king in 1495.

 In the 15th century, the nearby Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish castle) was inhabited by Jewish settlers who were segregated from the rest of the community by the king's orders.

Do these carved faces recall unpleasant anti-semitic feelings in the area at that time? Do they represent something or someone else? Or are they a more innocent jest?

The decorative carving is not confined to stone however, there are also some amazing carved wooden pieces to be seen. Flash photography and tripods are not permitted inside the palace, so unfortunately the images are a little blurry, but I hope that they give an idea of the quality of the work on display:

It's surprising how small many of the rooms are, particularly in a royal residence, but they still manage to cram in a lot of decorated furniture. Some of the rooms, including the great hall, were being renovated when we visited which meant that they had been cleared. It was a shame, but the friends that I visited with still felt a bit overwhelmed by the palace, with all of its tiny rooms crammed with decoration. With the possible exception of anti-semitism discussed before, I love the Palacio de Pena for its shameless, mad romanticism.

The Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle) in Sintra, Portugal

This national monument lies near to the town of Sintra, west of Lisbon. The heavily wooded area is a National Park and is very beautiful, with the trees growing on and around huge granite boulders. The area around the castle is so special that it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Castelo dos Mouros is a castle begun in the ninth century by the Moors, the Muslim rulers of the area at the time. It was modified by later Christian occupiers after 1147 AD, having passed backwards and forwards between Moors and Christians until then. It was also altered by King Fernando II in the 19th century. There isn't much of the associated buildings left, but the castle is very beautiful even so, with the forest that surrounds it now also filling it's courtyards.

The photos below shows the castle keep, where the Alcaide would live (the castle governor during the Muslim period).

Another national monument, the palace of Pena, sits on the next hill and so both can be visited in a day.   

An adult ticket for both in high season costs 17 euros. However, there isn't much in the way of disabled access. 

You might also need a good head for heights in parts of both the castle and the palace!

When we visited, the castle was in the middle of a large project to restore and improve it, including the building of a visitors centre. Once the large metal mast nearby has gone, it should look good, I think. The holes in the ground next to it are the cisterns, where water stores were kept in case of a siege.

An open-air stone sculpture exhibition in Portugal: Sintra Arte Pública lX

This sculpture exhibition is being staged until the 10th June 2013 at Sintra, a beautiful town to the west of Lisbon in Portugal. The theme of the exhibition is 'Myths and Mythology' (in Portuguese: 'Os Mitos e a Mitologia')

The eighteen carvings all feature stone, mainly marble, combined in some sculptures with metal. Portugal has large quarries of fine marble to the east of Lisbon.

The sculptures are set out alongside the road and had a crafts market going on next to them when I took these photos of thirteen of them. This, combined with the fact that some labels had been removed, means that I can't tell you who created every sculpture. It was a very pleasant surprise to come across them all though!

Nicolau Campos – “Dragão Aprisionado”

José Alves – “Fauno”

Stefano Beccari - "A Sereia"

Elliot Sharrad Jones – “Histórias do Tempo dos Sonhos”

 Élio Oliveira – “ El Rei D. Sebastião”

Beatriz Cunha – “Titã Fragmento”

Diogo Rosa -  “Eva”

Moises Preto Paulo- "Logos. Ansa"

Abílio Febra – “ A Lenda do Guerreiro-Musico”

Linda de Sousa – “Dafne”

Vincent Williams “As Minhas Memórias de Madagascar”

This granite bench was near the  stone sculptures. I'm not sure that it was part of the exhibition, but I like it. The inscription is a quote from Paul Valéry and reads: 'O mar, o mar, sempre recomeçado!' which translates as 'The sea, the sea, always beginning anew!'