"Sintra" a Sintra Travel Page by johnsakura

The district that is now covered by the Borough of Sintra has been inhabited by man for a very long time indeed. The privileged geographical and environmental situation has over the ages attracted and fixed settlers. Numerous archaeological remains, including prehistoric and protohistoric tombs, testify to its antiquity.

Sintra has remained even nowadays the "noble town surrounded by many estates, pleasant woods with plentiful springs of excellent water", referred to by various old authors.
A tourist region par excellence, Sintra is one of the most delightful places to be found in Portugal. With its extensive range of green bills with its crags - the Serra de Sintra - so picturesquely situated and offering stupendous views of the coastline with its impressive beauty, Sintra is indeed "a garden of the earthly paradise".

The potentialities of the Sintra district are not confined to the wild enchantments of the Serra, sometimes wreathed in mist, and to the artistic heritage of the Old Town, described by Byron as "the most pleasing in Europe", but also include valuable archaeological remains, particularly from the Roman period, ancient manor houses, churches of personalised artistic value and characteristic villages.

Built at the turn of the 20th century in the romantic ideal, this fascinating ensemble of constructions which have been built in the middle of the dense forest is the result of the achieving of the mythical magical dreams of its owner, Antonio Augusto Carvalho Monteira (1848-1920) in conjunction with the talent of the scenographer-architect Luigi Manini (1848-1936).