Explore Sintra

About Sintra

Sintra is the postcard-perfect day trip from Lisbon — a hillside town wrapped in dense cool laurel forest about 30km west of the capital, with a stunning collection of 19th-century romantic palaces, Moorish ruins, and gardens that the British poet Lord Byron famously called 'glorious Eden' in 1809. The UNESCO-listed Cultural Landscape of Sintra encompasses the whole hillside; you'll need a full day to see even the highlights. The riotously coloured Pena Palace at the top — yellow domes, red turrets, blue Moorish tiles, gargoyles, the lot — is the most photographed Romantic-era palace in Portugal, built between 1842 and 1854 by King Ferdinand II as a summer residence, and looks like the inspiration for a Disney castle (because Disney's Cinderella castle reputedly was directly inspired by it). The dramatically ruined Castelo dos Mouros next door, perched on the same panoramic ridge, is a 9th-century Moorish fortress with extraordinary views. The Quinta da Regaleira is the strangest highlight — a Gothic-Renaissance-Manueline mansion with esoteric gardens hiding 27m-deep spiral 'initiation wells' for Masonic ceremonies. The medieval Sintra Palace, with its two enormous conical white chimneys, anchors the village centre. Don't miss the queijadas de Sintra (sweet cheese pastries) and travesseiros at Casa Piriquita bakery.