About Sintra

Sintra – A Fairy-tale Mountain Retreat

Nestled in the forested slopes of the Serra de Sintra, this enchanting town has captured the imagination of poets, kings and travellers for more than a millennium. Cloaked in mist and sprinkled with vibrant palaces, Sintra is both a natural sanctuary and a living museum of Portuguese history.

A Royal and Noble Haven

From the 14th century onward, Portuguese monarchs chose Sintra as a cool summer refuge from Lisbon’s heat. The medieval National Palace, with its iconic twin chimneys, became the stage for royal festivities and political intrigue, establishing Sintra’s reputation as a place of leisure and power.

Moorish and Medieval Foundations

The earliest fortress on the ridge was built by the Moors in the 8th–9th centuries. After the Christian Reconquest in 1147, the Castle of the Moors remained a strategic lookout over the Tagus estuary, its granite walls still snaking along the crest today.

Romanticism and the 19th-Century Palaces

Sintra’s golden age came with the Romantic movement of the 19th century. Inspired by medieval myths and exotic aesthetics, artists and aristocrats transformed the landscape with eclectic residences:

• Pena Palace – a riot of colour and fantasy designed by King Ferdinand II
• Monserrate Palace – an Anglo-Portuguese vision blending Gothic, Indian and Moorish motifs
• Quinta da Regaleira – a Neo-Manueline estate famed for its Initiation Well and esoteric symbolism

Architectural & Natural Heritage

The entire “Cultural Landscape of Sintra” was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Here, Romantic architecture merges seamlessly with lush forests rich in endemic species and exotic plant collections introduced during the Age of Discovery.

Sintra Today

Modern Sintra preserves its spellbinding character while welcoming visitors along cobbled lanes lined with pastry shops serving the famed travesseiros and queijadas. Hiking trails wind through moss-covered woods to panoramic vistas of the Atlantic, and historic tramways still clatter toward the coastal village of Praia das Maçãs.

Step into Sintra – where every palace tells a story, and where nature and imagination entwine among the misty peaks of the Serra.