Some early morning rain and a day that promised blustery conditions dictated our travel plans. Rather than walk around Lisboa, we opted to take the train to Sintre to explore the Palácio da Pena, the Castelo dos Mouros, and anything else we might run across. Time, weather, and crowds limited our exploration to the Palácio and the Castelo.
Palácio da Pena is a strange bird. It rests atop a very steep, rocky outcropping high above the town of Sintre. It was originally established in 1493 as a monastery, a place of quiet meditation. (Editor’s note: Ironic foreshadowing.) It was destroyed by the same 1755 earthquake that destroyed buildings in Lisboa and it lay in ruins until King Ferdinand II acquired it and everything else around it in 1838 and rebuilt the monastery as a summer palace for the royal family. He did an…interesting job.
Palácio da Pena is a top tourist attraction. Tour buses, Tuk Tuks, cabs, and sightseeing buses provide a constant stream of visitors and give you a good idea of how sheep must feel at times. The Palácio itself is impressive in its grand audacity, but I have a difficult time calling it beautiful. The architecture is a strange mashup of forms and colors, and the tiles—beautiful as they are—seem to have been moved there from a tile showroom and placed randomly along the walls. The outside is magnificent. The inside feels cramped and confining. The decor is garishly ostentatious, if you ask me. There is little of the grandeur that you might expect, particularly if you are expecting the extraordinary architecture of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Belém or the Alcazar in Seville. It’s certainly worth a visit, and although you can roam around the outside terraces and walls, plan on being shoehorned into the interior spaces.
Some photos. (Click to enlarge.)
For my money, Castelo dos Mouros is a more inviting way to spend time. Built in 1108 and largely intact, it suits my notion of what a fortified castle should be—keeps on high promontories, curtain walls built among the boulders, turrets, etc. It’s a ten minute walk downhill from Palácio da Pena and worth the effort even if you have to walk down and then back up the beautiful paths through the lush woods to get there. A low fog was rolling in from the nearby Atlantic coast, and while it must be glorious to visit the Castelo on a clear day, the mist provided an interesting ambience to the visit. Once inside, you can roam to your heart’s content.
Some photos:
The 40-minute train ride back to Lisboa gave us enough time to explore the fascinating Convento do Carmo, literally across the street from us. It’s the remains of a once magnificent Gothic cathedral that is being reconstructed. It also houses an archaeological museum that has Neolithic artifacts from the earliest inhabitants of Portugal. Definitely worth a visit. Photography is not permitted inside in the exhibits, but here are a few photos of what was once the church.
