Pictures by Taylor Moore of the bewildering and spectacularly bonkers Quinta da Regaleira in Grand Lisboa, Portugal, located near the UNESCO World Heritage town of Sintra (and included within its designated ‘cultural landscape’).
The estate was developed between 1904 and 1910 by Portuguese entomologist Carvalho Monteiro, who commissioned Italian architect Luigi Manini to construct a series of enigmatic buildings combining the gargoyles, steeples, chapels and towers of Gothic, Renaissance, Roman and Manueline styles with symbolism relating to Masonry, alchemy, the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians, not to mention fantasy grottoes, caves and a deep dry well ringed with a spiral staicase.
Currently owned by the Sintra Town Hall, it was opened to the public in 1998.
More pix here.
well worth the visit from Lisbon
Horrible post-processing on those pictures. Something a 12 year would do.
Go wan outta that. They’re lovely.
Yep, definitely wow. And the editing improves them IMHO, almost fantasy CGI. It’s a yes from me.
I went to sintra.
Must have missed this one.
Now I’m sad.
Me too! Twas lovely and all but nothing like this.
I want to go to there
Me too !
Now we know where Peter Jackson got his inspiration.
It has that buzz about it alright :)
looks class! easy to get there?
Relatively easy from Cascais, takes about half hour on the bus. Think you can get a train from Lisbon itself. Definitely worth it.
yes it’s about a half hour walk up hill from Sintra
There’s also a bus that leaves from the tourist office if you can’t be arsed hiking up the hill.
cool, thanks all
Was there only last year during the summer…. Spectacular place to visit and of all one can do in Sintra, I’d recommend this the highest… The tunnels are great fun….
The new Tomb Raider’s looking well.
Terrible, terrible photos. I can’t understand why people do this.
I thought it was a set of screen-grabs from a Myst game.