The Private Apartments of the National Palace of Pena are the spaces where the Royal Family experienced the Palace at its most intimate—away from ceremonial rooms and the formality of official receptions. Here, the Palace is revealed as a lived-in residence, with areas designed for everyday routines, rest and domestic life, offering a more human and personal perspective, where history is felt at the scale of those who once lived here.

Located within the wing of the former 16th-century monastery — also known as the Old Palace — the Private Apartments reflect the two periods that shaped Pena: the legacy of the 16th-century religious building and the Romantic transformation carried out by King Ferdinand II in the 19th century, later also occupied by King Carlos I and Queen Amélia.

In this part of the Palace, essential residential functions become clear — bedrooms and dressing rooms, bathrooms, sitting rooms and reception rooms, and more private circulation areas — contrasting with the more public character of the New Palace, where the state rooms predominate.

More than a sequence of rooms, the Private Apartments help visitors understand how Pena was used as a royal residence and how life was organised “from within” a Romantic palace. Walking through this area, visitors enter a space of greater historical authenticity and quietness, allowing the Palace to be interpreted beyond its iconic image — not only as a monument and a setting, but as a place of refined living and intimacy.