Points of Interest
National Palace of Pena
Bedroom of Ferdinand II
This was the main bedroom in the Palace of Pena.
At the outset, Ferdinand II had planned chambers for himself and Queen Maria II in the Turret Tower of the New Palace. However, the queen died before construction on that wing was completed. The widowed king ended up remaining in the old convent, occupying this room with a view over to the Moorish Castle.
Later, Ferdinand, always tending to the unconventional, broke a long-standing habit of high society and began sharing his bedroom with his future companion, the future Countess of Edla, with whom he would only marry in 1869.
His grandchildren’s generation remained more conservative and opted for separate bedrooms: King Carlos left these chambers for Amelia and took over the former servants area on the lower floor of the cloister as his chambers.
The decoration in painted plaster with a Neo-Mudéjar style, dating to 1882 and the work of Domingos Meira, reflects Ferdinand’s taste for exoticism inspired by the Islamic heritage in Portuguese culture.
