Lisbon Day 3 – Sintra and Cascais
Sunday, 12-Apr-2015
Tags: Travel
Sintra is a historic town about 18 miles northwest of Lisbon (about a 40 minute train ride). It has several interesting attractions and museums. We chose to visit the three most popular sites. They are shown on the map below, (1) The National Palace (Palácio National de Sintra), (2) The Castle of the Moors (Castelo dos Mouros), and (3) The National Palace of Pena (Palácio National da Pena). The day was chock full of photos.
Upon exiting the train station, the Castelo dos Mouros (Moors Castle ruins) was immediately visible high on the hill.
We walked to the historic center, about 700 meters, flat and slight incline. Here you can see the Moorish Castle on the hill.
First stop for us was Palácio Nacional de Sintra. (We also have pictures of this palace taken from the Castle hill later on in the blog.) This palace was a summer palace from the 14th to 16th century. The Palace is a mix of styles from Moorish to Baroque. From the Palace website: The thousand-year-old history of the Palace of the Town of Sintra began during the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. The original Moorish Palace became the property of the Portuguese Crown after the conquest of the city of Lisbon by Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, in 1147. It was first subjected to alteration work, and new extensions were later added to the building over time, although it has largely maintained its present-day outline since the mid-16th century.
So many rooms and courtyard spaces – we are just showing you a few.
Almost every room had a motif on the ceiling. The naming was pretty obvious. This was the Swan room.
The Magpie room (the magpie is espousing the king’s motto “por bem”, “for good”).
The Galley room.
The ceiling of the Galley room looked like a ship’s hull, or maybe barrels, we couldn’t agree on what we thought it represented.
Blazons Hall, the royal arms and the 72 most influential families in the 1500s.
Tilework in Blazons Hall.
The kitchen.
After the palace, we took the bus up a tight switch-backed road to the Moorish Castle ruins. Here is a view from the ruins, looking down at the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, and the Atlantic Ocean on the horizon.
From
www.sintra-portugal.com :
The Castelo dos Mouros was established during the 9th century by the North African Moors to guard the town of Sintra but it fell into disrepair after the Christian conquest of Portugal. The castle was restored in the 19th century by King Ferdinand II, who transformed it into a "romantic ruin”. The castle was reconstructed so as to be viewed from his beloved Pena Palace, while the grounds were designed for areas for contemplation and relaxation.
The ramparts and different towers ran on for quite a while.
Looking down again at the Palácio Nacional de Sintra.
More pictures as we walked up and up.
Looking up at the Palácio Nacional da Pena (not to be confused with the Palácio National de Sintra which was the first place we visited). This does not show the whimsical other side. Just wait. We walked all the way back down to the beginning of the ruins of the Moorish castle to the road, and then walked up the road (rather than waiting for the bus) to the Pena Palace, about 2 km up, watching for cars, buses, and motorbikes.
Okay, here is the palace. Wow.
http://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/parks-and-monuments/park-and-national-palace-of-pena/
Located in the Sintra hills, the Park and Palace of Pena are the fruit of King Ferdinand II’s creative genius and the greatest expression of 19th-century romanticism in Portugal, denoting clear influences from the Manueline and Moorish styles of architecture. The palace was built in such a way as to be visible from any point in the park, which consists of a forest and luxuriant gardens with over five hundred different species of trees originating from the four corners of the earth.
Pretty amazing, huh?
This was pretty funny, a keystone with a relief of a key
So many different designs — so many pictures we could have posted.
After the Palace, we took the bus back down to the town. We took the 417 bus to Cascais, a beach town south of Sintra, east of Lisbon, on the Atlantic Ocean. As we said, this trip was included in our 24 hour unlimited pass. We walked from the station down to the beach and had a late “lunch” which served as our dinner.
A shot of the beach. We walked back to the train station and caught the 5:30 pm train back to Lisbon. Along the way, we passed the tower of Bélem and the Monastery we had visited the day before. We arrived at the Cais de Sodre station and took the metro home from there. A great day overall.
Day 3 was an 8 mile day and it seemed like all eight of them were uphill.
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Larry and Eileen Samberg
