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This quinta used to belong to Charles Murray and, until the 1940s, housed the Hotel Monte Palace. This wonderful quinta, with its palatial house surrounded by gardens and lots of trees, was once visited by Isabella of France, when the consul George Stoddart lived there. Today it houses the José Berardo Foundation, a private charitable institution, which safeguards and preserves works of art. It also has a museum and restoration workshop.

Monte Palace Museum
This museum is located in the Monte Palace Tropical Garden and houses two permanent collections, one of minerals and the other of contemporary Zimbabwean sculpture.
The sculptures are from the 1950s and 1960s and include works by artists from Tengenenge, such as Henry Munyaradzi and Bernard Matemera. The collection of minerals is organised on the basis of its aesthetic value. Most of the exhibits are from Brazil, Portugal, Peru or North America.

Monte Palace Tropical Garden
Plants from all over the world enrich this collection of 100,000 species including azaleas, heather and a wide variety of ferns.
The garden has a collection of cycads (encephalartos), which are considered living fossils. The garden contains some 60 of the 72 known species. There is also an area devoted to Madeiran flora, with samples of most of the species in the Macronesia Laurissilva Forest, in addition to other endangered species like the Pittosporum coriaceum, more commonly known as mocan.

Caminho do Monte, 174 and Caminho das Babosas
Phone: 291 742650
Tropical Garden: open every day from 09:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Museum: open from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Entrance fee: EUR 10,00