Voyages & Aventures: 4/5 - Atlantic coast, Cascais and Sintra

Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on account of its 19th century Romantic architecture.

Major tourist attractions include the fabulous Pena Palace and the castle Castelo dos Mouros with a breath-taking view of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park.

The town was already described in the 11th century by the Arab geographer Al-Bacr.

The Moors built the Castelo dos Mouros in the 8th or 9th century.

In 1493, Christopher Columbus sailing for the Spanish crown, was blown off course by gale force winds and fearing for the survival of his ship, spotted the Rock of Sintra. Despite the awkwardness of seeking safe harbor in Portugal,Columbus had no choice under the circumstances and sailed from there into the Port of Lisbon.

In 1808, it was the site of the signing of the controversial Convention of Sintra, which ended the first French invasion ofPortugal.

In 1809 Lord Byron wrote to his friend Francis Hodgson, "I must just observe that the village of Cintra in Estremadurais the most beautiful in the world."

The Pena National Palace’s history started in the Middle Ages when a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena was built on the top of the hill above Sintra. In 1493, King John II, accompanied by his wife Queen Leonor, made a pilgrimage to the site to fulfill a vow. For centuries Pena was a small, quiet place for meditation, housing a maximum of eighteen monks.

The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 took the heaviest toll on the monastery, reducing it to ruins. For many decades the ruins remained untouched. In 1838, King Ferdinand set out to transform the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family. The commission for the Romantic style rebuilding was given to Lieutenant-General and mining engineer Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege. The construction took place between 1842–1854, although it was almost completed in 1847.

After the Republican Revolution of 1910 it was classified as a national monument and transformed into a museum.