Quinta da Regaleira

On the 18th of November, I got the chance to visit Quinta da Regaleira, in Sintra (Portugal).

How to get there?

AS I live in Algarve, the simplest and cheapest way was to get a bus from Faro to Lisbon-Sete Rios. From there, I got on the train at the Sete Rios station (right next to the bus station) to Sintra. It was fairly cheap.

The journey from Sete Rios to Sintra lasted around half an hour, and as soon as I arrived, I simply followed the crowd to get to the city center. In any way, I was always using my best friend Google Maps just to be sure I didn´t get lost.

When I got to the center it was impossible to get lost because there were loads of signs everywhere indicating how to get to the famous Quinta da Regaleira. Without stopping, it takes around twenty minutes on foot from the station to the Quinta.

The beginning of the adventure

Once you buy the tickets (6€ adults; 4€ young people up to 18y) they give you a map of the huge space, along with some history of the place.

We face such natural beauty all around us which makes it hard to know where to look. In this sense, this place becomes a little bit confusing, also because of the countless ways you can take to get to the same places.

Points of interest

The places I consider the most spectacular were the caves and the Iniciatic well. However, what amazed me the most were the incredible architectural details of this whole place.

Iniciatic well

Caves

Inside the Palace, we have the opportunity to imagine how it used to be and to read all the information written in every room. You can identify countless architectural perfections that point to amazing symbolism that can be found all around this site.

The Palace

Bench statue

Speaking of symbolism, one the most splendid things is:

The secrets

Whith some background research on the Quinta da Regaleira, I've discovered that the well it's said to be the place where iniciations to masonry took place (hence the name "iniciatic"). There are various myths, but it becomes impossible to know themeaning of all the symbologies, due to the almost infinite number!

Personal opinion

It was a great day to explore the wonders of Quinta da Regaleira. Even though there were a lot of people because it was a weekend, the place is so big that it didn't really bothered me, except for the iniciatic well.

It is impossible to visit it in just a morning or an afternoon, but that's not a problem because there are loads of tables meant to be use to make a picnic, or in case you didn't bring any food, you can just head to the cafe with a beautiful view of the palace.

I advise everyone to visit, once there are loads of places like this, specially in Portugal, which makes it an unic place.