Sintra view from the walls of Castelo dos Mouros
A good point to start the visit, getting an idea of the layout of the town, is the Castle of the Moors , where the best views of Sintra are. From its surviving walls of the Reconquest you can see the main monuments and the indisputably beautiful surroundings, with its wooded gardens and its most humble houses with brightly colored facades, which form a whole that is entirely a World Heritage Site. This rating does not extend to the beaches that can also be seen from here, but there are plenty of reasons to include them in our particular list with the label “olacas+landscape”.
Sintra is perfect to imagine how were the holidays of the kings and the Portuguese nobility . Its mountainous sierra, with a milder climate than that of the capital, was the ideal place to rest, we don't know exactly what. The town is full of traditional houses that wind between stairs and bizarre mansions fruit of its time as a holiday destination, some abandoned, so the effect is even more suggestive. It is easy to understand the international fame that he achieved in his glory years. In the 19th century they went crazy with medieval styles, with the ornate and the evocative.
Sintra has plenty of magical atmosphere and picturesque charm. In addition, the romantic spirit came to change the consideration of medieval constructions and managed to build new ones imitating their appearance. The Pena Palace is the best example of this: its appearance can be repelling due to the accumulation of styles – neo-manueline, neo-gothic, neo-Arabic – or enchanting precisely because of it, but there is no doubt that it looks great: it climbs on top of a mountain and its colors – purple, burgundy, mustard - stand out against the Portuguese sky.
Purple, burgundy and mustard, the three colors of the picturesque Palacio da Pena
Stone triton at the entrance of the Palacio da Pena
The furniture and collections inside remain practically the same as at the beginning of the 20th century. It is not the most regal of castles nor does it have the most harmonic architecture, but, from such an accumulation of elements, it overflows with personality . Above all, the stone newt of the facade is unforgettable.
From here the most recognizable construction that stands out is the Vila Palace , in the very center of Sintra, with its characteristic white conical chimneys. It is the only authentically medieval palace that remains in the town. Its interior is full of mosaics with Arabic tiles, a decorative element that is frequently repeated in the rest of the constructions, for example in the Quinta de Monserrate , the Moorish and Neo-Gothic fantasy created by an English millionaire.
the same lord byron he regretted in his day the state of abandonment in which his gardens were, something that was solved over the years, now being a perfect romantic garden example in which native and exotic species are mixed (how the nineteenth-century people liked everything that smelled of exoticism) with apparent carelessness. Lord Byron would have no complaint.
A Quinta de Monserrate, the Moorish fantasy of an Englishman
We leave our favorite for last: a little hidden, the Quinta da Regaleira It's the perfect place to play 'Alice in Wonderland' . Those who are not in the business can simply explore this place full of symbols and messages written in stone. In addition to the villa itself, profusely decorated and full of animal statues carved in stone, its beautiful gardens contain a initiation well to which one descends by a spiral staircase, an artificial grotto, rock-cut tunnels and a fairytale pond created as symbol of birth and death, the real and the symbolic.
There are references to the 'Divine Comedy', to the Rosicrucians, to the Templars, to Freemasonry, to alchemy and practically to all the elements that make up the western canon of occult and esoteric wisdom . The symbols are visible to all, in the hands of the visitor is knowing how to interpret them. One last note: Sintra can easily be visited on a day trip from Lisbon , but it will always be a good decision to stay the night, especially if the accommodation is this Hotel described by Anabel Vázquez.
Quinta da Regaleira is full of occult and esoteric symbology