Marvelous Moors

More travel memories.

I have visited Sintra in Portugal twice - first time on a business trip weekend in 2008 and in 2016 wit my family on vacation.

I was very impressed by the Sintra area with their three castles and the magnificent view.
Sintra is also a very green area - due to the fact that it rains a lot and there are a lot of low clouds around - that we experienced in 2018. I wanted to show the magnificent views to my family, but...

So here we go with some memories from October 2008 when there were no low clouds.

"The Castle of the Moors (Portuguese: Castelo dos Mouros) is a hilltop medieval castle located in the central Portuguese civil parish of Santa Maria e São Miguel, in the municipality of Sintra, about 25km northwest of Lisbon. Built by the Moors in the 8th and 9th centuries, it was an important strategic point during the Reconquista, and was taken by Christian forces after the fall of Lisbon in 1147. It is classified as a National Monument, part of the Sintra Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site."

"The castle was constructed during the 8th and 9th centuries, during the period of Muslim Iberia, as the central place in a territory that was primarily agricultural, and which was necessary to protect its population[2][3][4]

In 1031, after the loss of Córdoba to the Almoravid dynasty, the king of Badajoz opted to transfer to Alfonso VI of León and Castile a few territories on the Iberian peninsula (among them Sintra) in order to gain an alliance with the Christian king.[2] This transfer did not result in any security, and the castle was lost to the invading Almoravid."

"The 1755 Lisbon earthquake caused considerable damage to the chapel and affected the stability of the castle. Visiting the chapel, Francisco de Almeida Jordão described the chapel (in 1768) as having a "principal door in the east, and in the south another smaller door, and a window...An addition to a painted image on the altar, there was another of rock which, already exists in the hermitage of Santa Eufémia, where they took it". An 1830 lithograph by Burnett immortalized the chapel's place in the Castle."

"During the summer of 1986, scouts were involved in projects to consolidate the walls with cement and clean the grounds, supported by the CMS."

"In 2001 there were various interventions associated with cleaning the property, clearing undergrowth and forest overgrowth, and the installation of an electrical box along one of the walls."