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SINTRA
A stunning storybook town unfolds in the mist, revealing wedding cake castles and stone fortresses from ions past. Step into this fairytale world, just an hour’s train ride from modern Lisbon.
Moor is More
Just an hour by train from Lisbon, one enters the storybook Sintra Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, crowned by the expansive Castle of the Moors. Constructed between the 8th and 9th centuries, it ascends the hillsides like a creature from beneath the earth. Its stepped battlements give rise to scenes of marauding armies, relentlessly challenging it through generations. Today it stands open to all, beckoning visitors to traverse its ancient walls.
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Pena Palace
Across the hillsides from the Moorish Castle, the colorful facades of the National Palace of Pena emerge through the morning fog. Originally the residence of 9th century Islamic Moorish rulers, it was later captured by Portugal’s first king, Afonso Henriques, The Conqueror in the 12th century. The playful, present day melange of Gothic, Manueline, Moorish and Mudéjar architectural styles were added in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Inside and out, the palace and it’s nearby gardens are a royal dazzle for the eye. Testament to its strategic hilltop-near-the-sea location, fog and mist add mystery to timeless charm. A feathered patrol paddles the meandering ponds like royal sentries while expressive gargoyles oversee the higher grounds.
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Storybook Storefronts
It’s not just about castles and royals in Sintra, as the townsfolk illustrate with genuine warmth. I am drawn to the little shops and cafes clustered along the hill in storybook fashion. The charm is rendered in tile mosaics on shop walls and spelled out on steps leading to their doors.
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Quinta da Regaleira
There are many extravagant palaces in Sintra whose soaring spires punctuate the sky, but this tower points down 27-meters into the ground like an inverted tower. Imagine the dark, medieval dampness below ground as you descend the spiral staircase alone, blindfolded, a sword held close to your heart. Nine flights of stairs into the earth – a number that represents the nine founders of the mysterious Templar order, you reach the bottom of the well, not for water, but to walk the dark labyrinth trying to find your way back up towards the light. If you made it you were welcomed as a newly initiated member of the sect.
Today, one’s initiation to Quinta da Regaleira includes a lesson in patience as you wait for the crowd to clear before snapping your cinematic moment on the spiral staircase. After all, patience is a virtue, even for Instagrammers.
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