The Sintra National Palace is located in Sintra, Portugal, a town that is collectively a UNESCO world heritage site due to its co-mingling of Moorish, Egyptian, Gothic and Renaissance elements. The famous sites in Sintra also include the Pena Palace, a sort of romantic palace as well as elaborate gardens and other manors.





The Sintra National Palace was originally a Moorish stronghold dating from the 10th century. Sintra was reconquered by Europeans in the 12th century, and was used a palace for then King Alfonso VI. Most of the castle was rebuilt during the 15th - 16th centuries, with King Manuel adding the final renaissance touches. The palace was a home for Portuguese royal families until the republic was formed in 1910, and the royalty was properly disposed of.

The palace is a fairly plain looking building, with white plaster / stucco walls.

Sintra is a very pretty village:

It makes a nice panorama:

Even if the palace is quite plain, externally...

Next to the palace you have a little garden:

Some Portuguese sculpture depicting the colonization of Brazil: Inside the Palace you can see some excellent Portuguese Azulejos:

Got to love the tile-work!

huge chimneys! They also havechimneys!



Here's a panorama I tried of it:



The dining hall:

Still the neighborhood has some beautiful buildings. Here's Sintra, the village:There is a valley looking down from the palace yard:Around the corner is a nice bell tower and pretty cafes:The Portuguese put tiles on everything...And the roofs are spared no empty space either...This is the "coat-of-arms" room in the Palace:It's quite beautiful:The guy on the right is explaining to the other Portuguese guy about how his wife wants tiles placed on their kitchen wall:I'm on Facebook- you can keep up to date with my posts and hear funny quips by following me:These are some 3D tiles made by the Portuguese:A lot of the ceilings are painted with repetitions of animals, like this, the swan room:Here's a model of the castle:In the Mudejar courtyard you can see the kitchen's great smokestacks:Beautiful dining hall:The magpie hall, painted because one of the kings was caught kissing a lady-in-waiting, so he was sick of all of the gossip in his court:Some tiles up close:The mermaid room- or merman? Difficult to tell with those neuter boobies.Jesus wants you to touch him there.Some furniture- secretly there are little tiles plastered over the whole thing!The ship room!The portuguese are super proud of their naval tradition.Back in the coat of arms room.The Lancasters and Barathyons are up there:The Stag, sigil of house Targaryon.72 noble families' coats of arms are in this room:But one was taken down after a conspiracy to overthrow one of the Kings:Here's where Pedro II kept his retarded brother, Alfonso VI:The Chinese room!You can see the Arab influence in the ceiling here:This chapel is likely the oldest portion of Sintra:Here's a Hindu fountain:The Portuguese love to cook!Some great pots and pans.The great Portuguese Paella pot:Some nifty door:They have some nice lamps too:And a beautiful fountain outside the palace:With more of Sintra to see!Thanks for viewing my post! Next week, I'll be posting about the Romance era Palace- the Pena Palace! Follow me on Facebook to keep up with it!Check out my video tour guide of Lisbon if you like!