The Park of Pena is a place of enchantment and deep romanticism. The palace, the woods, the environment… the history itself with the Monte da Lua, everything has a romantic feel. One of the striking places is the chalet of the Countess of Edla and, relatively nearby, the Countess’ Feteira.
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The romantic atmosphere of the Countess’ chalet and feteira is associated with a romance. King Fernando II, a widower, fell in love with a former opera singer, whom he eventually married, despite the controversy of the Lisbon elite.
They created their refuge in the Sintra mountain range, where D. Fernando was in the process of building the Pena Palace and reforesting the mountain.
For the couple’s charms, a romantic place remained. One of those places was the feteira where, every walk was experienced as a thread of water. “It is a more secluded and secluded area where you feel like you are constantly getting lost because of the winding paths. I believe that D. Fernando and the countess wanted to be insulated from the controversy that existed about their relationship.”
The description is from Elsa Isidro, landscape architect of the Park of Pena, and connoisseur of the immense universe of the park’s flora.
She highlighted to me two fetuses that had grown larger than usual.
They are found in a maze of paths in the Countess’ feteira, near a bridge lost in the grove. “In the initial phase of the park’s construction, D. Fernando is said to have acquired four specimens to experiment with an outdoor planting. This was a novelty in the 19th century.
In several European countries it was common to cultivate in greenhouses. Here we have the ideal conditions for the development of these species outdoors as well. It changed the paradigm and created conditions for Sintra to be able to have collections of this fern species outdoors”.
The weather conditions in the Sintra mountains allowed the ferns to be bred outdoors. The first four specimens purchased by the king are identified.
“We have two specimens here. The other two are near the Countess’ chalet. Other specimens of the same species were acquired and in this feteira the first and oldest collection in the Park of Pena was created.”
The other collection is the Feteira da Rainha. It also follows a water line from Tanque dos Frades. It extends to the valley of the lakes.
Tree ferns are native to Australia and New Zealand.
Elsa Isidro recommends spring as the ideal season, to discover the beauty of the two feteiras.
In Feteira da Rainha, near the tank of the Friars, do not fail to appreciate two huge sequoias that must be of the first examples of reforestation of the mountain, in the mid-nineteenth century.
Sequoias come from North America.
Many of the exotic plant choices were influenced by the Countess d’Edla who lived for many years in the United States.
