Pena Palace

What Pena is

In 1838 Ferdinand II, a German prince married to the Portuguese queen, bought a ruined monastery on the highest ridge above Sintra and spent the next decade turning it into Pena, painted in a yellow and a red that you can see from the motorway. The result mixes Moorish arches, Manueline stonework and a Bavarian idea of a castle, and it started the Romantic building spree that gave Sintra its UNESCO listing in 1995.

I live twenty minutes from here and still come up a few times a year, and the palace does the thing it was built to do: it surprises you. The colours look fake from a distance and hand painted up close. What most people don’t expect is how much of the visit is outside. The terraces, the walls and the park take longer than the rooms.

A short history

A monastery stood here first. Hieronymite monks built it in the early 1500s, the 1755 earthquake left it in ruins, and for eighty years the hill was a pile of stones with a view. Ferdinand bought the ruin in 1838 and hired a German mining engineer, Wilhelm von Eschwege, to turn it into a summer palace. Work ran from 1842 to 1854, and the king kept adding to it until he died in 1885.

The state took the palace in 1889 and opened it as a museum after the republic of 1910. Since 1995 the whole hill, with the palace and the park, has been part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra on the UNESCO list. The official name today is the Park and National Palace of Pena, and that’s what you’ll see on the ticket.

Inside, or from the terrace

Pena National Palace tickets come in two main kinds. The essential ticket (€20 for an adult) covers the palace interior, the terraces around it and the park. That is the visit most people want. Inside you walk a one way route through the royal rooms, the chapel and the kitchens; count 45 minutes to an hour when it isn’t crowded, longer at midday in summer when the corridors fill up.

The Total ticket (€45) adds the private apartments and the spaces that aren’t on the essential route. Worth it if you like rooms and have the time. If your interest is the building and the view, the essential ticket gives you all of that, and the terraces are where the famous photographs are taken.

The Queen’s Terrace on a morning when the fog sat below the hill. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC.

The park

The park is 85 hectares of forest planted in the 1840s with trees from every continent Ferdinand could get seeds from. It’s included in both palace tickets and can be visited on its own (€12). The paths are steep and signposted; the walk from the entrance gate to the palace takes about 20 minutes uphill, and the shuttle bus that does the same stretch costs €4.5 return.

Two places in the park are worth the detour if you have an extra hour: the Chalet of the Countess of Edla, a Swiss style cottage Ferdinand built for his second wife, and the Cruz Alta, the highest point of the range at 528 metres, with the palace below you and the coast beyond it.

Park highlights

The Pena Palace gardens are the part people skip, and they shouldn’t. Five stops, in the order you meet them walking up from the main gate:

Valley of the Lakes. Five small lakes in a row just inside the gate, with a fountain shaped like a little tower for the birds. The first flat, shaded stretch of the walk.

Queen’s Fern Valley. A damp ravine of tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand that Ferdinand planted in the 1840s. It looks nothing like Portugal, which was the point.

Camellia garden. Best from January to March, when the camellias flower and the rest of Sintra is grey. In summer it’s a shady detour.

Temple of the Columns and the Queen’s Table. Two viewpoints on the ridge west of the palace, ten minutes from the terraces. The stone table is where Queen Amélia took tea; the view is the palace with the coast behind it.

High Cross. The top of the range at 528 metres, marked by a stone cross. Half an hour from the palace on a marked path, and the only place where the palace looks small.

Tickets

Prices updated Aug 29, 2026?

Prices below are from the official Parques de Sintra price list, checked on Aug 29, 2026. Children under 6 are free on every ticket. Buy online with a date and a time slot; the palace runs on timed entry and busy days sell out in advance. Regaleira has timed entry slots too since 2026; the castle and Monserrate don’t.

Opening hours

Hours checked Aug 29, 2026?

Hours change by season. Closures for wind or works are posted on the official Parques de Sintra notices page, linked at the end of this article.

How to get there

From Lisbon, take the train from Rossio to Sintra, about 40 minutes. From Sintra station the palace is on the top of the hill behind the town, and you have three ways up.

Bus 434. The Scotturb loop from the station stops at the palace entrance. It’s the easiest option and the most crowded one; on weekends the line at the station can take longer than the ride.

On foot. From the old town, the trail past Vila Sassetti climbs to the park gate in under an hour. It’s steep and shaded and you arrive at the gate from the side where nobody is queueing for a bus.

Car. There is very little parking on the hill and the road is narrow. If you’re driving, park in the town or at the station and go up by bus or on foot.

When to go

Arrive for the palace opening at 09:30, or come after 16:00 when the day trip groups have left. Midday in July and August is the slowest way to see Pena. Mondays are busy because Lisbon’s museums close and everyone comes here instead.

The hill has its own weather. It is often several degrees cooler than Lisbon and sits in cloud on mornings when the town below is sunny. Bring a layer, even in summer. Strong wind closes the outer terraces; the notices page says when.