Quinta da Regaleira

The Quinta da Regaleira is the most enigmatic of the Sintra estates. Its palace, chapel, towers, grottoes and underground tunnels were created at the turn of the twentieth century for a wealthy collector with a taste for symbolism, and its gardens hide a world of wells, caves and secret passages.

An estate of symbols

The estate was transformed between 1898 and 1912 for António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, who commissioned the Italian architect and set designer Luigi Manini. Together they created a place full of references to mythology, alchemy and the Portuguese discoveries, where every path and structure seems to carry a meaning.

What to see

• The Initiation Well, a spiral staircase descending into the ground.
• The grottoes and tunnels that connect different parts of the garden.
• The palace, with its carved interiors and the chapel of the Holy Trinity.
• The gardens, with their lakes, towers and hidden paths.

Visiting the estate

The estate is at Rua Barbosa du Bocage, in the centre of Sintra. Opening hours and tickets are published on the official website, so check before your visit.

Visitor information: regaleira.pt.

Image credit: Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra, by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.