The Palace and Gardens of Monserrate

Situated in Sintra, Portugal, the traditional summer resort of the Portuguese court, Monserrate is one of the most romantic sites in Portugal (Lord Byron once described it as a ‘Glorious Eden’) and one of the reasons that Sintra was listed by UNESCO as Europe’s first Cultural Landscape. The palatial villa, situated in a botanical garden of exotic trees and tropical plants, was built by the Englishman Sir Francis Cook, who hired English architect James Knowles Jr to carry out renovation on an earlier building. A work in the Romantic-Orientalist spirit, with its great circular tower, bulbous cupolas and exotic decoration, the building recalls in particular the famous Brighton Pavillion of Nash, and owes much to English Romantic architecture, though its Moghul-inspired details are unique in Portugal.