- Where
- Sintra Mountains, Lisbon District,
Portugal - Coordinates
- 38.80° N
9.39° W (the town) - Population
- 385,654 (municipality, 2021)
- World Heritage
- 1995 (Cultural Landscape of Sintra)
- Visitors
- 3.2 million at the Parques de Sintra
parks and monuments (2017) - Getting there
- Train from Lisbon, 35–45 minutes
(CP urban services) - Best visited
- All year; the hills are often in cloud
- Advisory
- Portugal Level 1
exercise normal precautions
The bus climbed into cloud and let me off beside a castle painted the colours of a fruit stall, perched on its rock like a hat left on a peg. Below it a grey wall ran along the ridge through the trees. Later, in the town, I walked down a well instead of peering into it, turning and turning, until the daylight was a small round lid above me.
The short answer
Sintra is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera, Wikipedia records; the municipality had 385,654 people in 2021 across 319.23 square kilometres. The historic town, the Vila de Sintra, lies at the foot of the Sintra Mountains, which run through the Sintra-Cascais Nature Park. Its nineteenth-century Romantic architecture, estates, gardens, palaces and castles led UNESCO to inscribe the Cultural Landscape of Sintra as a World Heritage site in 1995. The parks and monuments run by Parques de Sintra drew 3.2 million visitors in 2017.
Why it's worth knowing
A palace made from a ruin. A chapel to Our Lady of Pena stood on the hilltop in the Middle Ages, and Manuel I built a monastery there for the Order of Saint Jerome, which housed at most eighteen monks, Wikipedia records. Lightning in the eighteenth century and the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 left it in ruins. In 1838 the king consort Ferdinand II bought the ruins, the land around them and the Castle of the Moors, and set out to turn the monastery into a summer palace for the royal family; the commission went to Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, a German mining engineer and amateur architect. The palace mixes Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Neo-Islamic and Neo-Renaissance styles, and its clock tower was completed in 1843. Its red and yellow façades faded to grey over the years and were repainted in their original colours at the end of the twentieth century. The Portuguese state bought the palace in 1889.
The Romantics’ Eden. Lord Byron described Sintra as “glorious Eden” in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Wikipedia records, and Richard Strauss wrote of a garden “comparable to Italy, Sicily, Greece or Egypt”, with “a castle of the Holy Grail” in the heights. The Castle of the Moors, along the ridge below Pena, was built in the eighth and ninth centuries and taken by Christian forces after the fall of Lisbon in 1147. Around Pena, Ferdinand II planted a park of more than 200 hectares with trees from distant lands, among them North American sequoias, Chinese ginkgos, Japanese cryptomerias and tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand.
The field notes
A well you walk down
Quinta da Regaleira was built between 1904 and 1910 for António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, known as “Monteiro the Millionaire”, to designs by the Italian architect Luigi Manini, on an estate of four hectares, Wikipedia records; its buildings are said to hold symbols of alchemy, Freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians. Its best-known structure is the Initiation Well, a shaft 27 metres deep lined by a spiral staircase in nine flights, which never served as a water source; at the bottom is a stone compass with a Templar cross, and tunnels lead out to grottoes and a lake. A Japanese company, Aoki Corporation, bought the estate in 1987 and kept it closed; Sintra’s town council acquired it in 1997, and it opened to the public in June 1998.
Magpies, swans and two chimneys
The Sintra National Palace, in the town, is crowned by the two great conical chimneys of its kitchens, Wikipedia records. Inside, the ceiling and frieze of the Magpie Room are painted with magpies holding the emblem por bem, “for honour”, in their beaks; the story told of them is that King John I, caught kissing a lady-in-waiting by Queen Philippa of Lancaster, had the room painted with as many magpies as there were women at court, to put a stop to the gossip. The ceiling of the Swan Room carries thirty swans, by the same account the age of the Infanta Isabel at her marriage to Philip the Good of Burgundy. Manuel I redecorated much of the palace between 1497 and 1530 with tiles made for him in Seville.
The Sintra National Palace and its conical chimney, seen from the Castle of the Moors, June 2025.
Photograph: Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0
Magpies holding the motto por bem on the Magpie Room ceiling, Sintra National Palace.
Photograph: Chuck Moravec · Sintra Palacio Nacional Sala das Pegas 2 (16287489066) · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
Looking up the Initiation Well at Quinta da Regaleira, August 2019.
Photograph: Ji Soo Song · Quinta da Regaleira Initiation Well Bottom-Up (48680367447) · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
The wall of the Castle of the Moors along its ridge, June 2025.
Photograph: Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0 · cropped
Tiled walls and a yellow dome at Pena Palace, December 2023.
Photograph: Greg Harding via Unsplash · Unsplash licence
- Climb the hill in the morning and allow the cloud to pick your first view. It has firm opinions, and changes them by the hour.
- Walk down the well and climb out again. (I read the list aloud at the bottom. It came back off the stone walls with two extra items on it, both ridiculous, and I have kept them.)
- Look up in every room of the palace in the town. Somebody went to a great deal of trouble with the ceilings.
- People live in the steep lanes of the old town. Keep to the pavements, leave their gates and doorsteps alone, and keep your voices down after dark.
- Walk part of the grey wall on the ridge, stopping at each tower to admire the painted palace over the treetops.
A magpie from the ceiling. In the Magpie Room of the Sintra National Palace, painted magpies hold the emblem por bem, “for honour”, in their beaks, Wikipedia records; the story told of them is that King John I, caught kissing a lady-in-waiting by Queen Philippa of Lancaster, had the room painted with as many magpies as there were women at court, to put a stop to the gossip. They are looked at from the floor, and they stay on the ceiling.
Tally, in the marginI counted the magpies with my head tipped back until my neck gave up, and was rather proud of my total. Then somebody told me why they were up there, and I decided a gentleman would forget the number. I have forgotten it most carefully.
Getting there
How to get there. By air to Lisbon, then by train: Lisbon’s commuter railway, CP Urban Services, runs to Sintra station, a journey of 35 to 45 minutes, Wikipedia records. From the station, bus 434, run by Scotturb, follows a one-way loop past the old town, the Castle of the Moors and the Pena Palace. Parques de Sintra says private vehicles are not allowed up to Pena, and points visitors to the bus, the walking trails, and car parks in the historic centre and on its edge. Quinta da Regaleira has no parking of its own.
When to go. The palaces open all year. Parques de Sintra’s own page for Pena speaks of the mists that characterise the Sintra Hills. On days of maximum rural fire risk the town council restricts access to the forest and closes the monuments on the hill: it did so from 13 June 2026, closing the Pena Palace and the Castle of the Moors, Correio da Manhã reported (indexed). Canada’s travel advice (updated 11 August 2026) notes that causing a forest fire in Portugal is a criminal offence, even when unintentional.
What to arrange ahead. Tickets are dated, and some are timed: as of 20 October 2026, Parques de Sintra’s prices page gives €12 for an adult (18 to 64) to visit the Park of Pena and €20 for the palace’s “essential visit”, with entry to the palace only at the scheduled time, and says online tickets require a date reservation; Quinta da Regaleira, run by Fundação Cultursintra, charges €20 for an adult, sells entry in half-hour slots from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through its official online ticket office, and allows up to an hour after the time on the ticket. The Sintra National Palace is €13 for an adult, by the same Parques de Sintra page.
Safety. The State Department’s advisory for Portugal is Level 1, “Exercise Normal Precautions”, dated 23 December 2025, and asks travellers to remain vigilant against petty theft in crowded tourist areas and on public transport. Canada’s travel advice says to take normal security precautions and notes that Portugal is in an active seismic zone. Parques de Sintra publishes an accessibility page for its parks and monuments, which stand on steep, wooded hills.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Sintra?
Sintra is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, about 25 kilometres north-west of Lisbon, at the foot of the Sintra Mountains, Wikipedia records. Lisbon’s commuter trains reach Sintra station in 35 to 45 minutes.
What is the Pena Palace?
The Pena Palace is a Romantic palace on a hilltop above Sintra, Portugal, which the king consort Ferdinand II began building from the ruins of a monastery after buying them in 1838, Wikipedia records. Its red and yellow façades mix Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Neo-Islamic and Neo-Renaissance styles; the Portuguese state bought it in 1889.
Is Sintra a World Heritage site?
Yes. UNESCO inscribed the Cultural Landscape of Sintra, in Portugal, as a World Heritage site in 1995, for its nineteenth-century Romantic architecture, estates, gardens, palaces and castles, Wikipedia records.
What is the Initiation Well at Quinta da Regaleira?
The Initiation Well at Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra, Portugal, is a shaft 27 metres deep lined by a spiral staircase in nine flights, built for ceremony rather than water, Wikipedia records. The estate was built between 1904 and 1910 for António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro.
Can you drive to the Pena Palace?
No private cars: Parques de Sintra says private vehicles are not allowed up to the Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal, and points visitors to bus 434, the walking trails, and car parks in the historic centre.
Do you need to book tickets for Sintra's palaces?
As of 20 October 2026, Parques de Sintra says online tickets for its monuments, including the Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal, require a date reservation, and entry to the Pena palace is only at the scheduled time; Quinta da Regaleira sells entry in half-hour slots through its official online ticket office.
Why is there a ceiling of magpies in Sintra National Palace?
The Magpie Room in the Sintra National Palace, Portugal, is painted with magpies holding the emblem por bem, “for honour”. The story, as Wikipedia gives it, is that King John I, caught kissing a lady-in-waiting by Queen Philippa, had one magpie painted for each woman at court, to stop the gossip.
How do you get to Sintra from Lisbon?
By train: Lisbon’s commuter railway, CP Urban Services, runs direct to Sintra station in 35 to 45 minutes, Wikipedia records. From the station, Scotturb’s bus 434 loops past Sintra’s old town, the Castle of the Moors and the Pena Palace.