We spent a few days in Sintra to wrap up this year’s Christmas ventures. Sintra is about 25km (15 miles) west of Lisbon. It became a retreat for royal families in the 19th century. As one of our Uber drivers put it, it is “Lisbon’s air conditioning.” (Because it is closer to the sea, and not as urban, it is much cooler in Sintra than in Lisbon.)
As with most of the towns and cities we’ve seen in Portugal in December, Sintra streets were lit beautifully. Unfortunately, the main Christmas event was only open on the weekends, so we didn’t get to see that.
The photo below shows the Moorish castle outlined in lights on top of the hill. We didn’t get to it on this trip.
We chose to see the National Palace of Pena and the Quinta da Regaleira on this trip. We’ll come back to see more. I’m looking forward to checking out the extensive gardens in the spring. Tourism in Sintra has picked up significantly over the years, as it has in many parts of the world. To protect the sites and improve safety and access, the town of Sintra has restricted vehicle access to several of the sites.
In 1840, King Ferdinand II renovated an abandoned monastery into a castle, the National Palace of Pena. The monastery was abandoned after the earthquake of 1755, which is known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake. The quake killed about 60,000 people in Lisbon alone, and the tsunami waves reached Algiers and Spain to the east and all the way to Martinique in the Caribbean to the west.
The palace is beautiful inside and out. We saw some restorations in progress; I’m sure it’s continuous work.
Our Airbnb wasn’t the greatest. It was a cold week, and there was only a small heater left for us that couldn’t keep the chill out of the air. A downside to traveling in the winter. Even Villa was happy to snuggle in a blanket.
The Quinta da Regaleira is much smaller than the national palace, but the grounds are larger and more beautiful. We could spend a day in the spring or summer walking around the gardens and hiking the extended trails to various marked sites. It was a rainy day when we visited, so photos were a bit challenging.
A family of merchants who amassed their wealth in Port wine owned the land and sold it to Carvalho Monteiro in the late 1800’s. He built the castle, the chapel, and other features in the gardens. Neither Ben nor I got any photos in the castle. We were underwhelmed after seeing the national palace the day before. I was out of the castle before I realized the marked tour route was over! Maybe 3 minutes–most of the castle was off limits.
The Initiation Wells were our favorite sites at Regaleira. These wells did not provide water. It’s believed they were used for ceremonial purposes. I have no idea what that means. I did think of Dragnet movie the entire time I walked down the steps though!
There were several tunnels at the bottom of the well, most roped off. The trail led to a small waterfall and out into the garden.
The photo below is of the Fount of Abundance. My panorama from my DSLR isn’t pefectly rectangular, but I didn’t want to crop any of the fountain away, and LR’s fill in tool didn’t look great. Makes me think of the maps of Mars we’d get from MRO’s flights. Like this: https://www.msss.com/msss_images/2007/07/19/index.html
This is the Guardians Portal, taken from the Tower of Regaleira. Monteiro used this as an ampitheater. It also hides an entrance to the initiation well.
Ben and Megan Travel the World 