Sintra, Portugal – Castle wonderland with secret societies

The mountain town of Sintra is one of the biggest attractions in the Lisbon area. It is a small town that has several historical sites that are well-worth seeing. You could see them all if you go fast in one long day, but it’s probably best to stay one night and take a slightly more leisurely approach to the area.

Castel Pena is probably the biggest attraction. It’s best to buy tickets online to avoid the lines. This is a castle that would do Disney proud. There is a lot of climbing to see it all, so bring good shoes. You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but many of the rooms have unique styles – for example, my favorite was the bedroom of the secretary to the queen, it had painted walls to look like wood and then sculpted pinecones at the top.

If you are afraid of heights, there is one semi-terrifying place on the top, where the balustrade is very low and the path his very narrow, and I would not want to be in the low part when someone tried to go the other way.

Castel dos Mouros, a 9th-century construction, is just downhill from there – a 10-minute walk or so. If you still want to climb stairs, this is one of the best places to do it. I did 90 flights of stairs today according to my Fitbit, and a substantial portion of that is definitely from this site alone. The views are amazing if you have a clear day. I wouldn’t bother if it’s cloudy as there’s not much to see of the ruins, it’s really the views that are the attraction. There are some burial sites you can see, and some cisterns and such, but the ruins aren’t very exciting on their own. It was mainly a watchtower, not a castle that was lived in, so there are few interior rooms, mostly just walls and stairs.

The next main attraction is the Sintra Palace, which is right in town. The Moorish palace has two tall chimneys that stand out and make the building easy to see from many vantage points. It has imaginative rooms (like a Magpie room with magpies all over it, and the mermaid room), and has beautiful tile work throughout. There is an Arab room with a fountain in the middle that was once a bedroom (?), so there are some odd things to be seen here. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

My favorite site though was the Quinta da Regaeira (and NOT the Quinta de Regaleiga, they are only 2 letters different but don’t get them confused or you will be sad). This site was my favorite in Sintra, despite the pouring rain, the fact that my umbrella broke, and that I was sopping wet. The QDR is an estate with a small castle-like home, but that isn’t the attraction. The site has many towers and stone monuments to climb (albeit some are a challenge with really narrow spiral staircases that can be tight with a backpack). The attraction is the grounds, which have a chapel, numerous paths, fountains, statues, a labyrinth grotto, and the key attraction, an initiation site into the Knights Templar. Even in late November, there are bird-of-paradise plants blooming on the property.

This attraction is near the top of the hill on the grounds – the inverted pillar that is a stairway down to hell.  It’s beautiful in the rain, and I’m sure in the sun as well.  You go down the large spiral staircase and at the bottom there are a couple of tunnels that take you to views of a greened-over pond and to a bunch of tall narrow stepping stones you can use to get across the pond and then go on a bridge over the pond to get out again.  Quite beautiful, but slightly creepy as well.

If you have a VR headset, you can go through some of these castles in Wander VR.