What you see

The Pena Palace, the National Palace, the Moorish Castle, and Monserrate (the most precisely SintraPortugal single Pena Palace 1843 1854 CE polychrome yellow terracotta red original colours restored 1996 CE towers visible from sea 40 km away interiors intact 1910 CE Republican conservation furnished exactly as royal family left 1910 CE largest Romantic palace interior furniture in Iberian Peninsula 72 rooms open visitor Triton Arch original 16th century CE Manueline carved bas-relief Cape of Good Hope navigational arms globe sphere preserved from original monastery Moorish Castle Castelo dos Mouros 8th 10th century CE Arab walls restored 1840s CE Fernando II Romantic restoration winding along granite crags 300m below Pena Palace 1h walk from town or 20 min tuk-tuk bus remarkable views both Lisbon Atlantic and Setúbal National Palace Palácio Nacional de Sintra 14th 15th century CE the twin conical chimneys 33m high iconic Sintra skyline kitchen chimneys for vast royal kitchen below best preserved royal palace interior medieval period Portugal original Manueline tiles azulejos 15th 16th century CE wall tiles entire rooms most important azulejo collection in situ Portugal deer room Swan Room Magpie Room each named for tiles Monserrate Palace 1858 1868 CE Francis Cook British merchant Gothic Moorish combination arched loggia exotic botanical garden surrounding palace 550 species subtropical plants romantic ruin aesthetic partially restored UNESCO heritage: the azulejos of the National Palace (why Sintra has the world’s most important in-situ medieval tilework collection): the National Palace of Sintra (the oldest and most architecturally complex of the Sintra palaces; construction 14th-18th CE; the earliest phase was the 14th-century CE residence of King João I) contains the most important collection of in-situ azulejo tilework from the 15th and 16th centuries CE in Portugal: the Sala das Pegas (Magpie Room: ceiling painted with 136 magpies — one per lady-in-waiting at court, painted to stop the ladies gossiping (João I caught them kissing his ladies; he ordered the paintings as a moral lesson)); the Sala dos Brasões (Coat of Arms Room: ceiling with 72 heraldic shields of Portuguese noble families, 1515 CE; the most complete record of Portuguese 16th-century CE aristocratic heraldry); the Sala das Sereias (Mermaids Room: 15th-century CE Hispano-Moresque lustre tiles, the oldest in situ tilework in Portugal) — together representing the complete history of Portuguese decorative tile art from 1400-1700 CE in a single building)) — the most precisely SintraPortugal single Pena Palace 72 rooms intact 1910 furniture Triton Arch Manueline Cape of Good Hope National Palace twin conical chimneys 33m 15th 16th century azulejos Magpie Room 136 magpies 72 heraldic shields 1515 CE oldest Hispano-Moresque tiles Portugal Moorish Castle Arab walls 1840s CE Romantic restoration Monserrate 1858 1868 CE Francis Cook Gothic Moorish 550 subtropical species UNESCO heritage in any UNESCO world heritage site)).