Gardens of Sintra - Lisbon and the Portuguese Riviera

The Serra de Sintra. A small range of granite hills to the north-west of Lisbon, they occupy the westernmost point of continental Europe, jutting out into the Atlantic. It is this proximity to the ocean that defines the gardens of Sintra and allows them to luxuriate with year round verdure. This brings too the sweet poetic air and soft rosy light of the setting sun. Gardens have been made here by the Romans and the Moors, by the Portuguese re-conquerors and discoverers, and by merchants enriched by the diamonds and gold of Brazil. These gardens have been described by poets, travellers, diplomats and soldiers from the Peninsular campaigns. 

In the nineteenth century Sintra became the centre for Portuguese Romanticism which celebrated this rich history and wild landscape. This in turn engendered a new round of garden-making which sought to emulate the cosmopolitan influences of the Portuguese discoveries and Moorish heritage. Palaces were built in the decorative style of the 16th-century king Dom Manuel, but were soon accompanied by others whose looks belied the links with India, Arabia and China. Their gardens were filled with exotic plants from Brazil, Australia, South Africa and Mexico, transforming the terraces of Moorish orchard gardens into sub-tropical forests and extravagant floral paradises.

Opera set designer at La Scala, Luigi Manini, is the architect of one of Sintra’s most extravagant buildings, the Quinta da Regaleira. But the Romantic capabilities of Sintra are not exhausted by this giant folly. The wooded hills reveal, one after another, the most extraordinary richness and concentration of amazing gardens: Sir Francis Cook’s Monserrate, once described as the world’s largest greenhouse; Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg Gotha’s gardens surrounding the Pena Palace that have transported the Black Forest to Portugal; the contemporary gardens of Quinta da Alegria inspired by the owner’s former garden in the South of France; and our hotel the Palácio de Seteais, built by the richest man of his day, holder of the Crown Monopoly of Brazilian Diamonds.