38.80° N · 9.40° W · Sintra
An early 20th-century estate five minutes' walk from the centre of Sintra, with a Neo-Manueline palace, a chapel and a garden full of grottoes, tunnels and lakes. Its most famous feature is the initiation well, a 27-metre inverted tower that you go down by a spiral staircase. Entry costs €20 for adults.
Part of Sintra
Step by step
You leave the square of the National Palace along the Seteais road and in five minutes you are at the entrance. You have an hour's margin on the time slot of your ticket.
Climb first, along paths among ferns and towers, to the top of the estate. That way the rest is downhill.
You go down the nine flights of the spiral staircase to the bottom, at 27 metres. The well is downward only.
From the bottom of the well you leave through stone tunnels towards the garden grottoes. The waterfall path is closed for now.
At the end, the Neo-Manueline palace, of which you visit the main floor on a one-way route, and the chapel, next to the exit.
The millionaire António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro commissioned the estate from the architect Luigi Manini and filled it with symbols. You do not have to decipher them: just get lost in the garden from top to bottom.
Carvalho Monteiro, born in 1848, was a wealthy collector, a lover of culture, philosophy and science. At the end of the 19th century he commissioned Luigi Manini, an Italian architect and set designer, to create an estate on the outskirts of the centre of Sintra. The result mixes Manueline, Renaissance, medieval and classical styles, and is designed as a journey: a hillside garden with towers, grottoes, fountains and passages, culminating in the initiation well. It is not a water well, but an inverted tower with a spiral staircase that descends into the earth and ends in tunnels.
It is the Sintra visit that most appeals to those who are not into palaces. You explore at your own pace, without a guide, with a map you can download.
For almost everyone. Teenagers love the tunnels and the well; adults, the garden and the architecture. With small children it works if they walk or are in a carrier: the terrain has slopes, steps and tunnels, and people with reduced mobility should go accompanied. Dogs are not admitted, except guide and assistance dogs, nor are suitcases or large backpacks.
From Lisbon, on CP's Sintra line train, which leaves from Rossio, Oriente and Entrecampos and takes a little under an hour. From the station to the centre there is a walk, and from the centre to the estate, five minutes along the Seteais road. The historic centre is closed to traffic: if you come by car, leave it in Lisbon or in a car park on the outskirts.
It is open every day except 1 January and 24, 25 and 31 December. From April to September, from 9:00 to 19:30; from October to March, from 10:00 to 18:30. Last entry is at 17:30 all year, and the palace and chapel close half an hour before the garden. The best times are opening and the last hour of the afternoon. In August the queues are long; in spring and autumn, more bearable.
€20 for adults aged 18 to 64, €15 for young people aged 6 to 17 and over-65s, and €60 for the family ticket for two adults and two young people. Children under 6 do not pay, but need a ticket. People with disabilities and one companion pay €12 each. The audio guide costs €5, is hired only at the ticket office and has 30 listening points in several languages, including Spanish. Buy only on the estate's official sales website: the monument itself warns of websites that resell tickets.
The visit is mostly outdoors, and in rain the stone of the well and tunnels is more slippery. Go with shoes that grip. If it pours, start with the palace and chapel and leave the garden for when it clears, or swap the day's order with Sintra National Palace, five minutes away.
Who it's for
You like gardens with surprises, you are travelling with teenagers or you only have time for one visit in the centre of Sintra.
You have a pushchair or someone who cannot manage stairs and slopes: the well and the tunnels are stone stairs and passages.
What to bring
Map
What you have around the starting point.
More to do
Itineraries
Tips
By mid-morning there is a queue at the mouth of the well. First thing you go down almost alone.
The estate recommends buying your ticket on its website to avoid the ticket-office queue.
It is five minutes' walk from Sintra National Palace. Do both in the same morning and go up to Pena in the afternoon, or the other way round.
For €5 you get 30 listening points spread across the palace, the chapel and the garden.
They are banned, as is flash inside the palace and the chapel.
Questions
€20 for adults, €15 for ages 6 to 17 and over-65s, and €60 for the family ticket. Children under 6 do not pay.
It is not obligatory, but the estate recommends buying online to avoid queuing.
About two hours for the garden, the well and the palace without rushing.
Not easily. There are slopes, stairs and tunnels: a baby carrier is better.
From April to September, from 9:00 to 19:30; from October to March, from 10:00 to 18:30. Last entry, 17:30.
Eating is not allowed on the estate. Eat before or after in the centre of Sintra.
No, except guide and assistance dogs.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/portugal/lisbon-region/sintra/things-to-do/quinta-da-regaleira
