Moorish Castle — Sintra, Portugal

A mighty majestic Moorish Castle, a pretty painted fairytale palace, a one of a kind ornately decorated town hall and plenty of other enchanting monuments to see. The whole town is declared a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its romantic architectural wonders

To get here, there is a regular train service from Rossio Railway station in Lisbon. As soon as you exit the station, you will walk by the ornately decorated town hall, it is magnificent!

We carried on walking past the Town hall and the view is absolutely breathtaking. Pine trees, colorful buildings, winding roads, modern art on the footpath along the way, stunning! Once you pass all this you come to the National Palace with its Gothic architectural style.

You can’t miss it, you will see it from afar, two huge chimneys rising from the kitchen. It is beautiful to look at and once you get to the town center, you will find it surrounded by cafés, souvenir shops and pretty cobble stoned streets. To see more pictures of Sintra, click here.

Walking around this pretty town is a fascinating experience. A 20 minute (800 mts) walk away is the splendorous estate of Quinta da Regaleira.

It is so immense and fascinating. On the property there is a Chapel, two very deep wells, ornate benches, grottoes, fountains, terraces, gardens, ponds, turrets. To see more pictures, click here.

The Chapel is decorated with frescoes, stuccoes and stained glass windows. The wells are inverted towers that were used for ceremonial purposes including Tarot initiation rites. The fountains and Waterfall lake are regal as well.

Moorish Castle Sintra Portugal

From here we walked back to the town where we caught the bus route 434 that took us to the Mighty Moorish Castle. Even if you have been in awe before, you will truly learn the meaning of being “in awe”! To see more pictures, click here.

Imposing, Impressive, Impregnable, a structure so commanding respect! You can walk around the ramparts, it is a little tiring so space yourself out and set aside time for this magnificent place, at least a couple hours. From one of the ramparts, you get a view of the beautiful, colorful Pena Palace.

To get to the Pena Palace is only 200 mts and can be easily walked. Returning to Lisbon is just reversing the journey. I would recommend staying in Sintra at least two days so you can take in all the sights at a leisurely pace thereby enjoying every moment of timeless sculpture and architecture.

 

Click here for more pictures of Sintra, Portugal.

 

You should also consider visiting Lisbon/Belém and Évora.

TIPS

1. Make sure you purchase a train ticket when traveling from Lisbon to Sintra as there are random ticket checkers on the train and the penalty is high.
2. Carry adequate water and food/snacks as this is a long trek/excursion.
3. When climbing up and through the Moorish Castle ramparts, height is a factor and so is stamina.