Palacio de Monserrate - Monserrate Palace and Fountain
by W Chris Fooshee
Title
Palacio de Monserrate - Monserrate Palace and Fountain
Artist
W Chris Fooshee
Medium
Photograph
Description
According to legend, Afonso Henriques built a chapel in 1093 dedicated to Virgin. Over the centuries, other chapels were built on the same site. Later, the property traded hands and in the 17th century was turned into a farm, until the 1755 Lisbon earthquake making the farmhouse became unlivable.
Through the decades, the property passed through a succession of owners. Though the property was still in ruins when Lord Byron visited in 1809, its magnificent appearance inspired the poet, who mentioned of the beauty of Monserrate in “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage”. That stirred the attention of foreign travelers. One of them was Francis Cook, a wealthy English merchant who subleased the estate and purchased the property in 1863 and started work with the architect James Knowles on building the house. The Palace subsequently became the summer residence of the Cook family.
The villa is a cacophony of Arabian design and exotic ideas, surrounded by classical English gardens set in the hills of the Serra de Sintra.
The design was influenced by Romanticism and Mudéjar Moorish Revival architecture with Neo-Gothic elements. The Islamic architectural influence is in reference to a time when the region was a part of the wider Muslim conquests that lasted until the 13th century.
Uploaded
November 30th, 2020
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