On Portugal's Atlantic coast near Lisbon, the richly forested mountains of Sintra rise majestically above the plain.

In the second quarter of the nineteenth century, King Ferdinand II built his palace "Pena" on the highest point, which was quickly dubbed "palace of grief" or "palace of tears", because "pena" means "sorrow" in Portuguese.

However, the popular etymology is dubious.

The name is more likely to derive from an earlier Marienkapelle, in which Nossa Senhora da Pena, the Mother of Sorrows, was worshiped as early as the Middle Ages.

The complex, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, is a prime example of the eclectic architectural style that characterizes historicism.

The palace is completely surrounded by a landscaped park of over two hundred hectares.

Bridges, pergolas and fountains, but also caves and grottos set design accents.

The visitor is presented with an extensive forest area with lush vegetation that makes you forget that it took several decades to transform the bare rocks into a green paradise.

The king focused on diversity: he planted hundreds of tree species from different countries, some from far away.

These included the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), giant cedar (Thuja plicata) and Lawson's cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) from North America, the ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba),

A merchant made rich with wood

A few kilometers from the Palácio Nacional da Pena is the Monserrate Rural Park, whose origins date back to the late eighteenth century, when an English merchant who had become wealthy trading in Brazilian timber began to set up residence on the outskirts of the city erect

The building and park were given their present form by the English textile merchant Francis Cook, who initially leased the property in 1856 and acquired it a few years later.

Monserrate is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Originally built in the Gothic Revival style, the building was in a deplorable state when Cook bought it.

Its new construction integrated older structures but added Indian and Moorish stylistic elements.

The pluralism continued in the park, where different scenes were modeled after the designs of a landscape painter and structured by fountains, ponds, walls, arches and gates.

Cook got herbal expertise from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and brought plants from all over the world.

Christmas stars from New Zealand

Countless plants from subtropical climate zones have been integrated into the native vegetation.

One could see the bunya bunya tree (Araucaria bidwillii) from Australia, giant poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) from New Zealand, Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) from Mexico, honey palm (Jubaea chilensis) from Chile and tree trelitzia (Strelitzia nicolai) marvel at from southern Africa.

For the deep valleys in the area, around 1870 meter high tree ferns were brought from Australia, which were transported without roots and fronds in boxes filled with damp sawdust to Sintra, where they were acclimatized and successfully transplanted: Eight of twelve ferns are said to have grown in the new location.

Cook spared no expense for the illusion of natural habitats.

In the age of historicism, the representative of a successful business bourgeoisie entered horticultural competition with princes and kings.

But the magnificent property fell into disrepair in the second half of the 20th century.

In 1985, the English landscape architect Gerald Luckhurst discovered the overgrown area on a garden trip to Portugal and made its historical research and reconstruction his life's work.

In 2013 he received the European Garden Prize for the best further development of a historical park or garden.

Any visitor today can see for themselves that Luckhurst truly deserves this award.