<p dir="ltr">We are now at Sintra... our final destination in Portugal. We have the full day tomorrow to complete our coverage of this area... there is a lot to see. This afternoon, we did the high-profile destinations... the Palace National of Sintra in the old city area, the Palace of Pena on the hill and the Moorish Castle (of course, also on top of a hill). You are probably thinking... 'same old same old' . Well, you are wrong... dead wrong. The proper form of address should be 'same but different'. Lets deal with the sites in chronological order. </p>
<p dir="ltr">The Moorish Castle is the first of its kind that we have seen largely in tack. As mentioned last week, the Christians made a point of eradicating the Moorish record as much as they could. In particular, upon conquering a Moorish castle or town, the first job was to dismantle the mosque and rebuild a church with the building material. Perhaps, the reason they left the Sintra castle was its extreme position. The Christians would not have wanted to build a Town on the castle site. I can't imagine how the Christians captured this site. Its geography makes it impenetrable. Perhaps, by the time the battles reach Sintra, the Moors had already given up and were on their way home. However, when building the Castle, who provided the engineering advice? There are some pretty big blocks of stone sitting high on the castle wall. To get the stone up there and set it in a manner that it could survive the 1755 earthquake leads you to believe these simple Berber folk from Morocco knew a thing or two about engineering. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Next, the folly... the spoilt simple minded rulers who could think of nothing better to do with a country's wealth than to build a summer retreat that pampered to every excess of the royal family. The problem being solved was that Lisbon gets hot in summer. So the court needed to move up to a hill that offered some humidity (keep the temperature down) and caught the onshore winds. Don Fernando II was King Consul... not even a proper King. He fancied himself as the Artist-King but left mountains of evidence that he was really the Silly-King. His reign was from 1836-1853. By this stage of history, he should have known better. </p>
<p dir="ltr">The Moorish Castle is the first of its kind that we have seen largely in tack. As mentioned last week, the Christians made a point of eradicating the Moorish record as much as they could. In particular, upon conquering a Moorish castle or town, the first job was to dismantle the mosque and rebuild a church with the building material. Perhaps, the reason they left the Sintra castle was its extreme position. The Christians would not have wanted to build a Town on the castle site. I can't imagine how the Christians captured this site. Its geography makes it impenetrable. Perhaps, by the time the battles reach Sintra, the Moors had already given up and were on their way home. However, when building the Castle, who provided the engineering advice? There are some pretty big blocks of stone sitting high on the castle wall. To get the stone up there and set it in a manner that it could survive the 1755 earthquake leads you to believe these simple Berber folk from Morocco knew a thing or two about engineering. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Next, the folly... the spoilt simple minded rulers who could think of nothing better to do with a country's wealth than to build a summer retreat that pampered to every excess of the royal family. The problem being solved was that Lisbon gets hot in summer. So the court needed to move up to a hill that offered some humidity (keep the temperature down) and caught the onshore winds. Don Fernando II was King Consul... not even a proper King. He fancied himself as the Artist-King but left mountains of evidence that he was really the Silly-King. His reign was from 1836-1853. By this stage of history, he should have known better. </p>
The third of our visits was to the Palace National of Sintra. The Silly-King had left his mark and departed this mortal coil. Sintra was still an important centre of political power. A sensible Palace was built to conduct the affairs of state... in the city square... of a grandeur appropriate for a rural retreat of government. The tourists don't like visiting it as much... but it certainly gave the tax payers of the day much better value for money.
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