Sintra

Sintra & Vicinity

Sintra was the summer home of most of the kings of Portugal and their Moorish predecessors. Located about 15 km north of Cascais, it is an easy drive of less than an hour from the marina or a couple of hours if you take the scenic route along the coast (as we did). The area in and around Sintra contains an incredible number of palaces, forts , castles, churches and monasteries, nearly all of which are open to the public. We spent the better part of two days touring Sintra and still saw only a few of the highlights of the town.

All of the pictures on this page were taken by Jack & Nikki Goodman

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The most prominent landmark in Sintra is the National Palace shown from above on the left. The distinguishing characteristic of the palace (other than its size) are the two conical chimneys which provide ventilation for the very large kitchen in the palace. We found the palace interesting, but not that exciting.

Much more interesting was the Castelo dos Mouros on heights of Monte Lua overlooking Sintra. The picture on the right below was taken from the National Palace showing the ramparts of the Castelo dos Mouros.

These two pictures of Sintra were taken from the National Palace grounds.

At the very top of Monte Lua is the Palacio da Pena was the final home of the last King of Portugal from which he and his family fled the country in 1910. It is reportedly full of kitsch and is more like the mock-medieval castles of Ludwig of Bavaria than any of the other castles in Portugal.

When we toured Monte Lua the palacio was closed (on Mondays) so we never went on the grounds.

On the right, below, is another castle as seen from the Castelo dos Mouros. We could not identify this castle nor did we visit it.

Castelo dos Mouros was built by the Moors during the 4th and 5th centuries. From its heights the fleets of invaders could be spotted while still many miles at sea.

On the left is a view of the castle looking up from Sintra.

The view from the ramparts of the castle are spectacular. Also the climb on the ramparts was a thorough aerobic workout.