After an exhilarating day climbing mountains, to reach the
fanciful Pena Palace and the ruins of the 1,000 year old Moorish castle, both
perched high on the hills overlooking the town of Sintra, I stumbled upon
another unexpected delight. As I neared
the bottom of the hill on my walk back into town, I noticed signage for Quinta
da Regaleira, a turn of the 20th century palace that is now a UNESCO
World Heritage site. The brief
description in my guidebook sold me with promises of caves and other enchanted
goodies scattered across its extensive grounds. So without a moment’s
hesitation, I set off in that direction.
The predominately neo-Manueline mansion was built by an
Italian opera-set designer and is layered with a fusion of several other architectural
styles giving it a whimsical look. The mansion itself is worth touring, but it’s
the grounds of the property that beg to be explored. Armed with a map written
entirely in Portuguese, I did my best to decipher what sites lurked along the
meandering footpaths in the nine acre parkland built into the hillside.
