My Guide to the Palace of Pena

DescriptionAuthor: Mariana Schedel Published by: Parques de Sintra, 2014 ISBN: 978-989-98669-2-8 Written by the art historian Mariana Schedel, this book was designed for children aged between nine and thirteen and nurtures in this age group a relationship of complicity in the discovery of the secrets of the National Palace of Pena by inviting them to explore its environment through a set of observation based challenges and other activities. The book takes them on a voyage through time to a period in which this palace was lived in by its own builder, King Ferdinand II, whose designs, replete with the fantastic, illustrate a large part of the book and complemented by sketches and watercolours by João Catarino and Joana Nina. Through the feather and the imagination of Ferdinand, and led by the voice of this researcher dedicated to the study of the decorative features of the National Palace of Pena, this young audience embarks on the discovery of the animals and histories enclosed within this monument’s decoration, a great book of stone and tile that always has something new to reveal whenever visiting.