Chalet da Condessa D’Edla

About

To the west, the Park of Pena also contains the Chalet and Garden of the Countess of Edla, recently reopened to the public after a long process of recovery and restoration after the building was destroyed by fire in 1999. The Chalet was built by King Ferdinand II and his second wife Elise Hensler, Countess of Edla, between 1864 and 1869, in keeping with the Alpine chalet model that was in vogue in Europe at that time. The building is extremely picturesque, characterised by the horizontal marking of the external plaster, painted to imitate timber cladding, and by the extensive use of cork as a decorative element, covering door and window frames, eaves and verandas, as well as tree trunks backing onto the facades to support climbing plants.