Things to do in Santarem

Jardim das Portas do Sol

Santarém Water Park

CNEMA - National Exhibition Center and Agricultural Markets

Santarém pools

No. 1 of Best Things to Do in Portugal

Pena Park

Pena Park is a vast royal woodland garden that embraces the Pena Palace, spreading across the heights of the Sintra hills. Created in the mid-nineteenth century by King Ferdinand II of Portugal alongside the palace, it covers more than two hundred hectares of rolling terrain and deep forest. Paths crisscross the grounds like a maze, linking stone bridges, grottoes, fountains, and trellised pavilions; combined with the mist that often hangs over the hills, wandering here feels much like stepping into a fairy-tale forest. Looking down from one side of the palace, the whole expanse of greenery spreads across the slopes like a sea, with the red-and-yellow palace towers as the focal point of the scene. The garden has a distinctly Romantic character: the king ordered trees brought in from distant continents, and North American redwoods, Chinese ginkgos, Japanese cedars, and magnolias can all be seen here. In the ravine known as the "Queen's Fern Garden," groves of tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand grow along the stream in dense green profusion. On the lakes of the Lake Valley stand duck houses shaped like castles, one of them modeled after the Moorish Castle; in the woods stands a knight-like "Warrior Statue" by the sculptor Rusconi; and on the western side of the park, the "Countess's Chalet" is a Swiss mountain chalet style building, its exterior painted with wood-grain patterns and trimmed with cork, surrounded by camellias and azaleas and set among giant granite boulders—a retreat the king built for his second wife, a former opera singer. Visiting tips: the park is large, with many slopes and dense branching paths, so wear comfortable shoes and allow most of a day to stroll at leisure; don't just rush back and forth to the palace—follow the paths deeper into the woods, where the Lake Valley, the Fern Garden, and the Countess's Chalet are often quieter and more rewarding to explore, and good for photos too; when the camellias bloom in winter, the park's colors are especially rich.

No. 1 of Night Attractions in Portugal

National Palace of Pena

The National Palace of Pena is a royal retreat whose dazzling, eccentric, and ornate silhouette looks like a pleasure-palace castle. The palace itself is a medley of architectural styles, combining Gothic, Renaissance, Moorish, and Manueline (the style of the reign of King Manuel I of Portugal) elements, and it was the brainchild of Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal in the nineteenth century. It is not only a Portuguese national monument but also one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal, standing on a hilltop in the parish of São Pedro de Penaferrim in the town of Sintra near Lisbon, and on clear days it is clearly visible from the city of Lisbon itself. In 1995, it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site as part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra. It is now frequently used for state functions by the Portuguese president and other government officials. In the Middle Ages, this site was merely a small chapel of Our Lady. In 1493, King John II and his wife visited, and his successor, Manuel I, built a monastery, which fell into ruins after the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755; Ferdinand II bought the ruins and the surrounding hillside and commissioned the German engineer Eschwege to design a building blending Gothic, Manueline, Moorish, and Renaissance elements, with construction beginning in 1842 and completed around 1854, making it one of the representative works of European Romantic palace architecture.

No. 3 of Best Things to Do in Portugal

Jerónimos Monastery

Located in the Belém district of Lisbon, the Jerónimos Monastery is a monumental building that is a masterpiece of Portuguese Manueline architecture and one of the most striking landmarks in the area. Construction of the monastery began in 1501, ordered by King Manuel I to commemorate Vasco da Gama's opening of the sea route to India, and the building process took nearly a century. In 1983, the monastery, together with the nearby Belém Tower, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monastery's exterior walls are covered with exquisite carvings, with lifelike figures such as the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child and graceful angels. The south portal is especially magnificent, reaching two stories high, with numerous fine reliefs carved above. The Manueline coat of arms can be seen on the spandrels, and the reliefs above the arch depict St. Jerome removing a thorn from a lion's paw and practicing asceticism in the desert. Although the main entrance is less ornate than the south portal, it has its own distinctive character: above the arch is a carving of the Nativity scene, and on either side of the door stand kneeling statues of Manuel I and Queen Maria of Aragon, flanked by the patron saints St. Jerome and St. John the Baptist. Stepping into the Church of Santa Maria within the monastery, the Gothic hall's vaults soar high, creating a spacious and solemn atmosphere. The altars at the end of the side aisles are adorned with gold and green carvings, and one of them features a statue of Saint Jerome made of crimson glazed porcelain. The church houses the tombs of the navigator Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese poet Camões, whose epic works are outstanding representatives of Portuguese literature during the Renaissance. The vault of the church's transept is supported by no columns at all, and the vast column-free space makes it seem as if the roof is floating in midair—a bold feat of Renaissance architectural engineering. The monastery cloister is equally worth savoring, with its exquisite arches and carvings full of maritime imagery and Manueline symbols. From the second-floor cloister, you can overlook the courtyard scenery, so you may want to pause here to take it in. Because space in front of the monastery is limited, capturing a full panoramic view is quite difficult, but the carved details on the exterior walls are enough to make one stop and appreciate them for a long while.

Garden of Freedom, Santarém

Park Zona Norte de Almeirim

St. Bento Viewpoint