, c. 1877. Displayed at
Pena National Palace. Ferdinand was an intelligent and artistically minded man with modern and liberal ideas. He was adept at etching, pottery and painting aquarelles. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Arts, Lord Protector of the University of
Coimbra and Grand-Master of the
Rosicrucians. In 1838, he acquired the former Hieronymite monastery of Our Lady of Pena, which had been built by King Manuel I in 1511 on the top of the hill above
Sintra and had been left unoccupied since 1834, when the religious orders were suppressed in Portugal. The monastery consisted of the cloister and its outbuildings, the chapel, the sacristy and the bell tower, which today form the northern section of the
Pena National Palace (the "Old Palace"). Ferdinand began by making repairs to the former monastery, which, according to the historical sources of that time, was in poor condition. He refurbished the whole of the upper floor, replacing the fourteen cells used by the monks with larger-sized rooms and covering them with the vaulted ceilings that can still be seen today. In 1843, the king decided to enlarge the palace by building a new wing (the New Palace) with even larger rooms (one of them being the Great Hall), ending in a circular tower next to the new kitchens. The building work was directed by the Baron von Eschwege, a wild architectural fantasy in an
eclectic style full of symbolism that could be compared with the castle
Neuschwanstein of King
Ludwig II of Bavaria. The palace was built in such a way as to be visible from any point in the park, which consists of a forest and luxuriant gardens with over five hundred different species of trees originating from the four corners of the earth. Ferdinand would spend his last years in this castle with his second wife, receiving the greatest artists of his time.
Death When he was 60, Ferdinand suffered from facial
cancer that severely disfigured him and kept him away from public life. On 12 December 1885, due to
double vision caused by the tumor, he tripped when going down the stairs to the foyer of the São Carlos Theater, violently hitting his head against a wall and fell into a coma, dying three days after. In his will, he left almost all his assets to his second wife, which caused a public commotion. He rests next to Maria II, his first wife, in the
Pantheon of the House of Braganza, in
São Vicente de Fora,
Lisbon. ==Marriages and descendants==