Serra do Bussaco, is a mountain range in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, formerly included in the province of Beira

Beira, Portugal

Beira was one of the six traditional provinces or "comarcas" of Portugal.-Administrative history:The medieval province of Beira was divided in 1832 into* Beira Alta Province* Beira Baixa ProvinceBeira Litoral...

. The highest point in the range is the Ponta de Bussaco (1795 feet), which commands a magnificent view over the Serra da Estrela, the Mondego River valley and the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

.

The Serra includes the buildings of a secularized Carmelite monastery, founded in 1628. The convent woods have long been famous for their cypress, plane, evergreen oak, cork and other forest trees, many of which have stood for centuries and attained an immense size. A bull of Pope Gregory XV

Pope Gregory XV

Pope Gregory XV , born Alessandro Ludovisi, was pope from 1621, succeeding Paul V on 9 February 1621...

 (1623), anathematizing trespassers and forbidding women to approach, is inscribed on a tablet at the main entrance; another bull, of Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...

 (1643), threatens with excommunication any person harming the trees.

Towards the close of the 19th century the Serra de Bussaco became one of the regular halting-places for foreign, and especially for British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

, tourists, on the overland route between Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 and Porto

Porto

Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...

. The Palace Hotel of Bussaco

Palace Hotel of Bussaco

The Palace Hotel of Bussaco , is a luxury hotel located in the mountain range of Serra do Bussaco, in the municipality of Mealhada, in central Portugal.-History:...

 (Palácio Hotel do Buçaco), built between 1888 and 1905 in an exuberant Neo-Manueline

Neo-Manueline

Neo-Manueline was a revival architecture and decorative arts style developed in Portugal between the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century...

 style, is still a magnet for tourists.

In 1873 a monument was erected, on the southern slopes of the Serra, to commemorate the Battle of Buçaco

Battle of Buçaco

The Battle of Bussaco resulted in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army, in Portugal during the Peninsular War....

, in which the French, under Marshal Masséna

André Masséna

André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....

, were defeated by the British and Portuguese, under Lord Wellington, on 27 September 1810.