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Published: October 10th 2017
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Sintra Palace
Pots and pans "Sintra is a resort town in the foothills of Portugal’s Sintra Mountains, near the capital, Lisbon. A longtime royal sanctuary, its forested terrain is studded with pastel-colored villas and palaces. The Moorish- and Manueline-style Sintra National Palace is distinguished by dramatic twin chimneys and elaborate tilework. The hilltop 19th-century Pena National Palace is known for a whimsical design and sweeping views." We headed out early today (for us...9:00 am!) to Sintra, a 40 minute train ride away, and a UNESCO Heritage Site. The train was crowded, but we were early enough to get seats. The trip is not very interesting: just one giant blob of high rise apartment buildings after another with little green space.
A bit of interesting history for all you Norwegians reading this: Sintra was under Islamic rule until July 1109 when
Count Henry reconquered the Castle of Sintra. This was preceded a year before by an attempt by Prince
Sigurd the Crusader, son of
Magnus III of Norway, to capture the castle from the Moors in the course of his trek to the
Holy Land. Sigurd's forces disembarked at the mouth of the Colares River but failed to take the castle.
Sintra itself is beautiful; green, hilly, and full
Pena National Palace
By Guillaume70 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons of gorgeous buildings.But it is
very crowded with tourists even in October. Despite the advice in the title, it is hard to imagine any way to avoid the crowds here. We had to wait for the bus to the Pena Palace (talked with an East Indian couple), wait in the ticket line, and then move with the crowd snail-like through the Palace. We much preferred the Queluz Palace for the interior exhibits, but the outside of Pena is spectacular as is the setting. I would recommend skipping the palace and just viewing it from the outside, and spending time on the grounds.
The Pena Palace was built by King Fernado II from 1842-1867 and is one the finest examples of nineteenth century Portuguese romanticism in architecture. The Park is a transformation of a once barren hill into a lush 85 hectare natural environment with trees that the King ordered from all over the world.... It was turned over to the State in 1890 and became a museum in 1910. It is now run by the same corporation as the Palace of Queluz and several other sites in the area.
We walked for an hour or so through the
High-rise apartments everywhere
We were surprised to see only mass after mass of apartment buildings the whole way to Sintra woods and trails of the Pena grounds, and it was very pleasant after the crowds. You could spend several days exploring the vast park!
Once we go back to Sintra, we toured the Sintra Palace, which was not crowded and had more interesting interiors. This palace was originally a Moorish construction, and was a royal residence from the 12th century on. The distinctive, and unattractive towers are actually the kitchen chimneys!
We were surprised at the very strong Moorish influence here in Sintra. Some of the rooms in both palaces could have been found in Istanbul.There was a strong Islamic presence in Sintra in the 8th and 9th century, when the Moorish "Castle" fortifications were built above the city.
We took the train back home in the late afternoon, and stopped by the grocery store for food..eating in again tonight!
Tomorrow will be hot, so we will visit a few more museums and head to the beach again...
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