Quinta da Regaleira

 

Today we went to the Quinta da Regaleira which is a palace with an extensive landscape surrounding it. Quinta da Regaleira was owned by the Baroness of Regaleira, but she sold it at the end of the 1800s to a millionaire named Monteiro. He was interested in the esoteric, which is the knowledge of ancient secrets and practices. For example, he was interested in groups of knights such as the Knights Templar and the Knights of Christ. When he acquired the Quinta, he incorporated these secrets and symbols in his remodel, such as using the cross of the Knights of Christ on the floor of his chapel. It was built with Gothic and Renaissance influence. The palace is beautiful, but the most outstanding part to me is the land surrounding it. There is an extensive cave system underneath and tons of paths through the forest that covers the grounds. Walking around the beautiful nature with tons of stone towers all throughout really felt like we were walking through a fairy tale land.

The Quinta da Regaleira is important historically and culturally for many reasons. There is a wide variety of architectural and symbolic elements that make it representative of the time that it was built. It is an interesting combination of the mythic and the intellectual. It helps us understand Portuguese cultural heritage during this time and is even part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Sintra. There are a lot of. cool elements throughout this property that are wonderful examples of history and heritage. In the chapel there is a depiction of Saint Anthony preaching to the fishes when nobody in Portugal would listen to him, and a beautiful depiction of Saint Theresa and a vision she had of Jesus coming to her as a child. These are important religious stories for the people of Portugal, and the Freemason elements throughout also give us some understanding of their past.

In terms of cultural capitals, when people go to Lisbon, they go to Sintra as well. Quinta da Regaleira enhances Sintra's landscape and history, which in turn adds to the allure and history of Lisbon. It is a part of a broader cultural landscape that Portugal has as a whole. This amazing estate show us important elements of religious and intellectual history. There are so many elements combined in this one place by Monteiro such as Freemasonry, orders of Knights, and Catholicism. The nature surrounding this place and the impressive system of caves is also very unique for its time and still continues to be unique now. There is a reason it is one of the most popular tourist sites in Portugal!