My Escapes Portugal Another Lovely Trip to Portugal! Sintra Day Trip to Sintra The Windy Castle of the Moors [...]

The Windy Castle of the Moors in the Woods

The Moorish Fortress on top of a smaller mountain near Sintra is both a historic attraction and a great viewpoint.
From the peak you can even see Belém, Lisbon and the Atlantic Ocean - in clear weather.

After having walked out the Pena Palace and wandering in its park, I found my way to the Moorish Castle through the woods.

Weird forest - to me, rather unusual by all aspects. I'll provide details lower on this page.

As its name suggests, it's a fortification built by the Moors, who ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula in the middle ages.

The fortress was built around the 8-9th centuries, strategically at an elevation of 420 m.

The Christians took the fortress after the fall of Lisbon, in 1147 without any fight (the Moors surrendered). Perhaps this is why it was so well-maintained, not ruined!

It's one of Portugal's largest fortresses worth visiting.

In fact, this was the first Moorish-related attraction that I've ever visited.

It's relatively close to the Pena Palace (literally located on the neighbouring hilltop), just that it requires a lot of walking.

Go there only if you really know what you want.

It's a rocky medieval fortress, don't expect more than roughly what you see on my photos.

Basically, it's a "collection of rocky walls". Not much else.

At the time of my visit, it was quite windy and it was raining a bit.

There are shorter ways to get to the fortress, but I chose the longer one - for the sake of adventure: I went through the humble forest.

It's not particularly dangerous, just watch your step, there are abrupt slopes.

My 18 EUR combo ticket included the entry fee to the Castle of the Moors, the Pena Palace and to the latter's park (there were some rough screaming guys checking the tickets even in the park).

As follows, I will leave you in company of my photos.

First are shots from my very light and short forest hike, then several photos from the fortress...

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