Chalet of the Countess of Edla (1869).

Located at Capuchos Road, Sintra, it was made built by King Ferdinand II. He was king by marriage with Queen Mary II (the ruler). The first husband of the queen (King August I, August von Leuchtenberg) had died in 1835 of disease, two months after the wedding. In 1836 the queen married Ferdinand von Sax-Coburg Gotha, which became King Ferdinand II. Widower after the death of the queen, in 1853, he also suffered the death of their son, Peter V, in 1861, what brought about the ascent to the throne of Louis I, another son of Mary and Ferdinand. King Ferdinand II had felt in love in 1860 with Elise Hensler, an opera singer he had seen performing in Lisbon. Elise, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds (Neuchâtel Canton, Switzerland) was educated in Boston, where her parents had migrated to, and acquired U.S. nationality. She married Ferdinand II in 1869, when the chalet and surrounding gardens, built at his expenses, were achieved. Before their marriage she became Countess of Edla, a title issued by an Austrian prince, cousin of Ferdinand. In 1885 the Countess lost her husband and was compelled to sell the estate to the state, keeping the right to use it until 1904. Then she moved to Lisbon, where she died in 1929.
In 1999 a fire destroyed part of the chalet, which was fully restored and opened to the public in 2011.