The third Duchess of Palmela used her fortune to increase the real estate of the family. In the 1870 decade ordered the project for a palace to be constructed in the property located in Cascais. With the construction of the palace came the need to build a park that occupied all the property from the ocean to Monte Estoril. The design and construction of the park obeyed to the orders of a specialist and the own taste of the aristocrat. Several species of plants, shrubs and trees were planted in the rugged terrain. Beyond to the “exuberant green” this park was marked by a watercourse, its water tanks and its dirt roads, all in English style. Despite being a private park the owners put it at the disposal of the population and all people can enjoy the space, its shadows, its waters and its superb view by the Atlantic. In addition to being enjoyed as a space for entertainment and leisure, this park allowed for the coexistence between people of different statutes, assuming it as a space of sociability. A space of sociability that has allowed on several occasions to raise funds for social causes through the organization of festivals, Kermess, and others activities. Benefiting from a unique landscape, the palace and the park of the dukes of Palmela taking on an important memory of the Cascais experience between the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the next century, when this village became the summer resort of the royal family and, consequently, the Portuguese Royal Court. This important park in the urban planning and social life of Cascais in XIX century was transformed a public park in the twenty century, participated in the transformation the small fishing village in a one of the most important tourist and bathing poles of the Iberian Peninsula.

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Park,Cascais,XIX and XX centuries,Duchess of Palmela