Sintra-Cascais

The National Palace of Queluz, also known as the Palace of Queluz and the Royal Palace of Queluz, is an 18th-century palace located in Queluz, a city in the municipality of Sintra, in the district of Lisbon.

One of the last great Rococo-style buildings to be designed in Europe, the palace was conceived as a summer retreat for D. Pedro de Bragança, who later became the husband and then consort king of his own niece, Queen Maria I. It served as a discreet place of confinement for Queen Maria, as her descent into madness continued in the years following the death of D. Pedro in 1786. After the destruction by fire of the Ajuda Palace in 1794, the Palace of Queluz became the official residence of Prince Regent João VI and his family, remaining so until the royal family traveled to the colony of Brazil in 1807 following the French invasion of Portugal.

Construction on the palace began in 1747 under the command of the Portuguese architect Mateus Vicente de Oliveira. Despite being much smaller, the palace is often referred to as the Portuguese Versailles.

The National Palace of Queluz has been classified as a National Monument since 1910.

The Pena National Palace, popularly referred to as just the Pena Palace or Castle of the Moors, is located in the town of Sintra, parish of Sintra (Santa Maria e São Miguel, São Martinho e São Pedro de Penaferrim), municipality of Sintra, in the district of Lisbon, Portugal.

It represents one of the main expressions of architectural Romanticism of the 19th century in the world, constituting the first palace in this style in Europe, built about 30 years before Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.

On July 7, 2007, it was elected as one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal.

The Pena Palace has been classified as a National Monument since 1910 and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

The Palace of Regaleira is the main building and the most common name for Quinta da Regaleira, also known as the Palace of Monteiro dos Milhões, after the nickname of the owner António Augusto de Carvalho Monteiro, who was honored by King Dom Carlos I on August 16, 1904, with the title of Baron of Almeida and commissioned the construction of the palace in its current configuration.

The palace is situated on the hillside of the mountain and a short distance from the Historic Center of Sintra. It has been classified as a Property of Public Interest since 2002 and is an integral part of the cultural landscape of Sintra, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

Under the design of the Italian architect Luigi Manini, António Augusto gave the four-hectare estate a palace surrounded by lush gardens, lakes, grottoes, and enigmatic constructions, which conceal alchemical meanings evoked by Masonry, Templars, and Rosicrucians. He shaped the space with mixed designs that evoke Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Manueline architecture.

The original building constructed by Gerad DeVisme was an elongated structure with two cylindrical towers at either end, topped with cone-shaped roofs (this essential structure has remained until today). It was a neo-Gothic castle that underwent alterations by Beckford and hosted numerous parties. It thus became the center of an elite group of intellectuals that Beckford gathered around him. One of the most celebrated is George Byron, an Anglo-Scottish poet and figure of the Romantic movement, who referred to Monserrate in his work "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" in 1809.

Around 1840, the original building was left abandoned, with thefts of lead coverings and some of the ceilings collapsing.

In 1858, the new owner Francis Cook hired the services of English architect James Knowles to design a new palace using the foundations and some walls of the previous construction (some of which were over a hundred years old). The construction, which lasted from 1863 to 1865, reveals an Orientalist and eclectic taste, with markedly Gothic, Indian, and Arabic elements. It generally presents a rigorous symmetry, marked in the center by a set of elegant columns supporting the neo-medieval arcade. English contractor J. Samuel Bennet was hired to work with D. Fernando in the restoration of the Jerónimos Monastery.

Inside, we find an octagonal atrium formed by Gothic arches and pink marble columns (with a set of stairs leading up to Francis Cook's private quarters), the Dining Room, the Library with walnut bookshelves and a beautiful high relief door, the Chapel, the Main Atrium, which is also octagonal and features a Carrara marble fountain of classicist inspiration, as well as pierced panels of Deli alabaster that function as sculpted screens. This atrium, surmounted by a profusely decorated dome of wood and stucco, is located in the center of the Gallery that runs through the entire palace, from the North Tower to the South Tower. We also have the Billiard Room, the Indian Living Room, and finally the Music Room, a hall of generous proportions, excellent acoustics, and rich decoration. It has a stucco dome, a frieze with representations of the Muses and the Graces.

In the town of Sintra, we can find evidence of practically every era in Portuguese history, often with a dimension that exceeded the boundaries of this territory due to its significance. The application for Sintra to be recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site/Cultural Landscape aimed to classify an entire area that had become a cultural and environmental context of specific characteristics: a cultural unit that has remained intact among a plethora of palaces and parks; manor houses and their respective gardens and woods; villas and chalets surrounded by lush vegetation; extensive walled sections that crown the highest peaks of the mountain range. Also, among a plethora of monasteries for meditation located among cliffs, forests, and springs; churches, chapels, and shrines, centuries-old centers of faith and art; in short, an intact cultural unit among a plethora of archaeological vestiges that point to occupations that date back several millennia.

Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of mainland Portugal and continental Europe. It is located in the parish of Colares, municipality of Sintra, and district of Lisbon.

The site is visitable, not to the extreme point, but to a zone at an altitude of 140 m. The cape forms the western end of the Sintra Mountains, plunging into the Atlantic Ocean.

Luís Vaz de Camões described it as the place "Where the land ends and the sea begins" (in Os Lusíadas, Canto III).

A stone pattern with a plaque marks this geographic particularity to all who visit this place.

Its flora is diverse and, in many cases, has unique species, being the subject of several studies that also extend to geomorphology, among others.

There is a lighthouse (Cabo da Roca Lighthouse) and a tourist shop in the area.

It is located in the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, in an area of easy access and great tourist influx, with many people visiting it.

On Sundays, it is common to see several groups of motorcyclists gathering there.

Cascais is a Portuguese town located in the sub-region of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, belonging to the region of the same name and to the district of Lisbon, with 64,310 inhabitants (2021) in its urban perimeter.

It is the seat of the municipality of Cascais, with a total area of 97.4 km² and 214,158 inhabitants (2021), divided into 4 parishes. The municipality is bordered to the north by the municipality of Sintra, to the east by the municipality of Oeiras, and to the south and west by the Atlantic Ocean.

Its origin as an independent entity dates back to the Charter of the Town, on June 7, 1364, in which King D. Pedro I of Portugal separated it from the term of Sintra due to its economic development. Administratively, it only became independent in 1514, when it was provided with its own charter. Occupied since the Paleolithic era and with an important archaeological heritage, the municipality was early focused on agricultural and fishing production, as well as resource extraction. Its strategic position in the Tagus Bar contributed to its importance, now having a vast military architectural heritage.

Due to its natural and scenic values, both the town and the municipality experienced a surge in popularity that saw it become the preferred destination of Portuguese and foreign elites from the 19th century onwards. The arrival and electrification of the railway were crucial to the municipality's progress, being the main factor for its urbanization from 1930 onwards. Since then, it has grown to become one of Lisbon's main suburbs and one of the country's main tourist destinations, sharing the phenomena of suburbanization and peri-urbanization that have occurred in the rest of the metropolitan area, especially evident in the interior of the municipality.