Lord Byron wasn't the last Brit to be seduced by Sintra. Francis Cook, an English textile merchant who was named a viscount by King Luis I in 1856, began work on the extravagantly Romantic villa where a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Montserrat had been built in the mid-16th century. The new Viscount of Monserrate, one of England's three richest men at the time, was a big fan of Moorish architecture.
He planted an English garden, too. King Charles III reopened the rose gardens in 2011 after they were restored.
Chris and Janet are standing beneath the Indian arch, which the viscount imported from Delhi. As you do, when decorating summer getaways.
The viscount avidly collected sculpture.
The view above is just as spectacular. We didn't know it at the time, but the Batalha monastery inspired the octagonal, domed roof of the entrance tower.
The music room fills the entire north tower.
It would be a great place to drop acid no matter who was tickling the ivories.
The library and the bedrooms are the only rooms with doors, which gives the villa a light, airy feel.
It's hard to believe that Monserrate is the least visited of Sintra's palaces. The man behind the ticket desk told us he and his colleagues had decided to strike at their morning meeting.
This terrace overlooks the hillside garden which boosters say rivals that of Quinta da Regaleira. There's even a hiking trail to Convent of the Capuchos.
If only we'd known to look for the chapel ruins. You can rent them for weddings--after all, Portugal has the world's highest divorce rate!
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