A DAY IN SINTRA, PORTUGAL (OCTOBER 2014)
A visit to the Pena Palace and the Moorish Castle and seeing the colorful architecture in Sintra, Portugal. You guys. A Moorish Castle in ruins. It’s the coolest.
Enjoy!
This is a day trip we took from Lisbon, I believe the train ride was about an hour. You can take a taxi directly up to the top of the hill where Pena Palace, this city’s gem of an architecture and walk down past the Moorish Castle ruins and into the city center. Or you can walk up if you want to save money!
Pena Palace is a crazy awesome sea-themed colorful palace that is built on a rock on the top of a hill. The site was a Medieval monastery that was heavily damaged by an 18th century earthquake. In 1838, the area on top of the hill was purchased by King consort Ferdinand II and it was transformed into this crazy mix of styles. I believe it was meant as a Summer palace, and includes Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Neo-Islamic, and Neo-Renaissance styles with a oceanic twist.
Enjoy!
You arrive and first see these bright yellow walls. Ticket booths are just beyond the walls, and there’s a shuttle you can take to get up to the entrance of the Palace. It’s very hilly.
So intriguing on the walk up, more and more of the Palace begins to be revealed
Amazing stonework right off the bat
Snake faces (or are they eels)
The dramatic walk up to the main courtyard
Look at these gorgeous buildings! It’s like stepping into the Little Mermaid (if their Castle was above ground)
They were doing a bit of restorative work. I guess up until the 20th century the palace had faded to a grey color and only in the last 100 years has been repainted to it’s original glory
I spy Waldo. Trying to get a photo taken in one of these awesome little look out things
A man having a very intense phonecall
He did not notice me for a long time.
I love the look of the rocks worked into the building
We are the worst tourists I think
Or maybe just Zach is the worst
Look at all the styles of windows
Zach learning to work with my film camera
Where did that door come from…
Center courtyard in the area that you can tour some of the rooms and see royal collection furniture in context.
Look at this crazy dining room. The furniture is nuts, and those scary vaulted ceilings…aha
Love the wall paper and patterns throughout the living spaces
You want to shower in the middle of the room next to a mirror. Also, showers, were a relatively new thing when the Palace was built.
Intricate wall and ceiling carvings, probably the Islamic influence
Look at this ceiling! A mix of trompe l’oeil and actual stone work
White sculptures against the green wallpaper, ace ace
Similar style as this Getty plate, right?
If you weren’t impressed by the stone carving, are you impressed with this wood carving?
Goodbye, Pena Palace! Headed back down the hill
As we walked down, it seemed suddenly so far away
Entering the Moorish Castle ruins
Gorgeous views as we walked along the stone walkway up to the Castle. It was built during the 8th and 9th centuries. Yeah. I KNOW. Amazing!!!!
Human hands constructed these walls over a thousand years ago, and repaired like 800 years ago. And re-re-repaired like 400 years ago.
I felt like I was 8 years old again, climbing over rocks, exploring all the nooks and crannies of the castle. Pretending like it was a war, and I had to duck behind the walls to scurry to a tower.
LIKE COME ON. It’s the most stereotypical castley castle.
After, we walked all the way down through the city and found a Chinese restaurant
Zach had a crazy fever by the time we got back to the hotel.
😦
And that ends this day trip to Sintra!
Next up is a day trip from Lisbon to Evora.
Much love friends.