Our last full day with the group from Grand Circle – except the couple who flew out early to take a ship home, was spent with a drive to Sintra and Cascais.
Our first stop was Sintra, the Moon Hill, is where nature and man have combined in a perfect symbiosis that UNESCO granted it World Heritage status.
On the main square, you will see Vila Palace with its two distinctive cone-shaped chimneys. From the late 14th century, it was a summer resort for many Kings throughout the history of Portugal. Each room is decorated differently, and has its own history to be learned; its interior is also a surprise since it is a veritable tile museum, with examples from the 16th century, when tiles began to be used in Portugal.
Don’t miss a taste of the famous queijadas (cheese cakes) and travesseiros (almond pastries) – I didn’t.
We headed into the palace. Not an easy feat for me – as there were over 200 stairs.
The National Palace of Sintra has a thousand years worth of stories. It is also known as the Town Palace. The current palace is actually a series of royal palaces. The date the first building was constructed is, still a puzzle, though everything would suggest that it dates from the 22th or 12th centuries when the Iberian Peninsula was under Islamic rule. From the 13th to 16th century, it was transformed and expanded into a set of various buildings, or palaces, designed to meet the needs of the monarchy. By the 16th century, it was already one of the grandest royal palaces in Portugal.
Over the last three hundred years, like the Town Palace has been see and used in various ways. First, as a symbol of the antiquity of the monarchy. Then as a witness to the Islamic influence on Portuguese culture. After the establishment of the republic in 1910, as a monument in the founding of Portuguese nationality. And now as a cultural heritage in the heart of the town of Sintra.
This section of the palace corresponds to the royal palace built in the reign of King Joao (1357 – `433) and Queen Philippa of Lancaster (1360 – 1415). It begins with a Great Hall, which everyone who entered the palace could access. Access to the following rooms became more selective the further one progressed, culminating in the King’s or Queen’s Chamber. These could only be entered by certain members of the high nobility, clergy, or important ambassadors.
Swan’s Hall was where the courtiers assembled and where banquets, musical soirees, public receptions, religious feasts and even funeral ceremonies were held. The earthquake o 1755 raised part of the walls and the ceiling but they were rebuilt shortly afterward.
The Swan’s Hall takes its name from the decorations on the ceiling panels. It is unknown when they were painted, but it is believed that they may originate from the 14th century when Sintra was directly administered by Queen Philippa of Lancaster as part of what were called the “Queens’ Lands”. The crowned swan was an emblem used by Henry IV of England, the queen’s brother.
The second room in the palace of King Joao I and Queen Philippa of Lancaster. This was probably the room most commonly used for royal audiences. The only furniture would have been that necessary to mark the king’s majesty, a dais or rug, a chair and a canopy. Royal audiences lost their importance in the 19th century and thereafter this room was used for banquets.
This room owes its name to the painting on the ceiling, which is considered the oldest in the Town Palace. It was known as the “Magpies Chamber” as early as the 15th century, though the precise meaning of the 136 magpies is unknown. The roses grasped in the birds’ claws are a possible allusion to the English House of Lancaster, to which Queen Philippa belonged. “Por bem” (“Willingly”) was her husband King Joao I’s motto.
The gilt copper globe depicting the celestial sphere with representations of constellations and the signs of the Zodiac. It is composed of twelve copper gores fixed to an internal metallic structure with iron rivets and is encircled by a meridian. At its poles are two axes that slotted into the housing at its base which has since disappeared. The globe is signed and dated. It was made by Christoph Schissler from Augsburg, the maker of geometrical and astronomical instruments, made and described this celestial globe in the year 1575.
The drawing of the figures, symbols and legends closely follows the smallest model of the celestial globe printed b Caspar Vopelius in 1536, who in turn based himself on the drawing of Imagines coeli made by Albrecht Durer and Conrad Heinfogel in around 1515. This globe already shows the nine constellations contained in the globe printed by Mercator in 1551.
The view from one of the balconies
The Galley Room, or Great Hall, is the first room of the Palace built by João III in the 16th century to interlink the main chambers to the south with the northwest wing of the Palace. The room gets its name from the galleys painted on the ceiling that fly the flags of Portugal, the Ottoman Empire and the Low Countries. Hidden by a false ceiling in the 19th century, the paintings were withdrawn from the dark in the following century. The memory of its original meanings however remains lost.
King Manuel I decided to beautify the building in the early 1500s. It was at this time that the most grandiose room, the “Sala dos Brasões” (“Coat-of-Arms Room”), was built, which later, in the 18th century, was lined with several extraordinary tile panels depicting bucolic and hunting scenes. It’s one of the country’s most important collections of baroque tiles, created by one of the leading artists of the time, known simply as Master P.M.P.
This is the oldest section in the palace, a fortified structure built to defend the surrounding lands. Renovated in the time of King Dinis and Isabel of Aragon (13th century), this Palace was a display of noble authority before the people. This authority belonged to the Queen to whom the King had granted the lands (and town) of Sintra. As the highest authority, the queens maintained their chambers in this zone of the Palace, which was the most inaccessible of all.
In the 17th century, the area came in for a different use. This became the prison of King Afonso VI, who was deposed by his brother. The king lived here in isolation and guarded over by 300 soldiers throughout nine years. The palace, a symbol of authority in times past but now obsolete, was now the prison space for a king who had been stripped of his royal authority. In the Chamber of Afonso VI, some of the oldest surviving ceramic flooring in the palace can be found (c. 1430-1440).
Through to the end of the monarchy in 1910, religion was present in every aspect of Portuguese society. The Crown and the Church mutually benefited each other with royalty frequently adopting religious practices in justification of their actions.
In the Palace of Sintra Chapel, religious services were held that simultaneously paid homage to God and to the king. During mass, the king would be hidden behind a curtain alongside the main chapel (the most important space). This bestowed a sacred aura on the king, clearly placing him at a superior level to all others present.
The chapel is an original construction from the reign of King Dinis and Isabel of Aragon (13th century), but was altered and extended during the reign of Afonso V. The Mudéjar ceiling is one of the best preserved in Portugal. The wall decoration has been restored in the 20th century based upon surviving fragments that had been found.
Through to the 15th century, sharing meals with their subjects was one of the fundamental functions of the king, alongside wielding justice and providing protection. This was one of the main acts of union, and hence the role of banquets, despite being only occasional, ranking among the most important of court events.
The monumental Palace of Sintra Kitchen was built by King João I to serve the entire palace. Its dimension is explained by the various hundreds of people that would have made up the court at that time. With Sintra a land for royal hunting, this was where the animals hunted would be prepared for banquets. The emblematic scale and shape of the two 108 foot chimneys became a landmark of Sintra.
We finished walking the palace – and my knees were ever so grateful. I let Gloria go walking the town and I headed to the Piriquita – for a pastry and a cup of tea. Yum
We now started our drive to the coast heading to Cascais.
We stopped at Praia do Guincho. The 16th century Fortaleza do Guincho fort (the yellowish building on the left in the photo) has been converted into a 5 star hotel along with a Michelin star restaurant. Guincho is a destination for surfing or kitesurfing, but it is less suitable for a conventional relaxing day on the beach as here can be very strong sea breezes and any onshore winds are funneled around the Sintra hills, further strengthening them. Guincho is amazing for experienced surgers, with huge Atlantic waves that roll onto the sands. This beach was a filming location for the 1969 James Bond movie – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
We continued our drive down to Cascais.
Cascais is an important tourist destination. Its marina hosts events such as the America’s Cup.
Cascais’s history as a popular seaside resort originated in the 1870s, when King Luis I of Portugal and the Portuguese royal family made the seaside town their residence every September, thus also attracting members of the Portuguese nobility, who established a summer community there.
Now you couldn’t think we would get on it —- now would you?
But of course
Well, my feet were flat on the ground as I took pictures.
And then it was time to get back on the bus to head back to Lisbon.
Tonight was our final night as a group with everyone flying somewhere – either to another trip or back home, or in our case – we still had 5 more days but in Madeira. Our farewell dinner was in Lisbon after we returned and we actually saw the Christmas Lights in the main square lit as we walked back to our hotel.
These were taken with my cell phone.
Now it’s time to get ready to leave for Madeira.
Postcards from Sue and friends 