  We present results of HST observations of the radio galaxy 3C 299. The
broad-band F702W (R) and F555W (V) images (WFPC2/PC) show an elliptical galaxy,
with a comet-like structure extending to the NE in the radio jet direction. The
[OIII]$\lambda$5007 emission line map, shows a bi-conical structure centered on
the nucleus, that overlaps the structure found in the broad-band filters. The
radio core coincides with the center of the bi-conical structure and the radio
axes are aligned with the direction of the cones. These data show clear
evidence of a strong interaction between the radio jet and the NE morphology of
the galaxy. We show evidence that this NE region is an ENLR; the line-ratio
diagnostics show that models involving gas shocked by the radio-jet plus
ionization from a precursor HII region, produced itself by the ionizing photons
of the postshocked gas on the preshocked gas provide a good match to the
observations. We investigate the spatial behavior of the ionizing parameter
$U$, by determining the [OIII]/[OII] line ratio which is sensitive to the
change of the ionization parameter, and trace its behavior over the ENLR along
the radio jet direction. We find that [OIII]/[OII] does not follow a simple
dilution model, but rather that it is approximately constant over a large range
of distance from the nucleus thus requiring a local source of ionization which
seems to be compatible with the shock models driven by the radio jet.
