"I live near Sintra (in Nafarros)" a Sintra Travel Page by Branco

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Sintra

Sintra is an World Heritage Site. It's a magical place where man and nature come together in a natural symbiosis.
Known in ancient times as Mons Lunae/Monte da Lua (the Hills of the Moon), because of its strong traditions of astral cults, still clearly visible in the region's countless monuments and archaeological remains, the Serra de Sintra is a granite outcrop of 10 km long, rising between a vast plain to the north and the estuary of the River Tagus to the south. It is a mountain range that twists and turns, projecting into the Atlantic Ocean to form Cabo da Roca - the headland that marks the westernmost point of' continental Europe.

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Old Pena Palace

At the UNESCO site we can remember some of the history of this World Heritage City :

As part of the territory of the Roman town of Olisipo (later Lisbon), Sintra had been inhabited as early as the 2nd century B.C. by Romans.
During the Muslim period (713-1147), Sintra appeared in geography texts (Al-Bakri, 11th century, taken up again in the 13th century) as a dependency of Lisbon and the second major urban centre after Lisbon.
During the reign of John I (1385-1433), the military conquest of Ceuta marked the beginning of Portugal's great maritime era. In Sintra, work was undertaken at the royal palace; this continued into the 15th and 16th centuries. Aristocrats erected splendid villas in Sintra and on the slopes of the Serra. The palace was one of the principal resorts for the court.
Under the Spanish administration (1580-1640), the court abandoned Sintra. In the 19th century, the King-Consort Fernando II transformed a monastery into the Palace of Pena. With the return of the court, Sintra witnessed its heyday. The qualities of its site attracted wealthy people and artists.
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Pena Palace

Cherished and revered over so many years, the Serra de Sintra today contains a fabulous collection of monuments from a whole host of different epochs, ranging from prehistoric times to the present day. This is a clear demonstration of the region's great respect for other people and its enormous cultural tolerance. Almost as important as the diversity of the monuments is the tremendous environmental wealth of the Serra. Thanks to its unique microclimate, Sintra has some of the most beautiful parks in Portugal, planted in keeping with a certain romantic taste, as well as a dense and verdant natural vegetation, affording the region an air of great majesty amidst the splash of different greens.

The visitor can therefore choose between descending into the Neolithic era at Tholos do Monge; enjoying the view of the distant horizons from the walls of the Castelo dos Mouros, an eighth-century Moorish defensive construction; experiencing the harsh austerity of the Franciscan monks of the Convento dos Capuchos; strolling through the delightful mysteries of the Palácio da Pena, a mythical and magical palace that seems more like a continuation of the actual mountain; or savouring the nooks and crannies of the Parque da Pena, a place of love and exoticism that exudes great peace and serenity.