Why go
Its walls are easier to read when you know why they were built, why settlement shifted away, and why Ferdinand II intervened. The castle’s history also links the ridge to Sintra’s town, chapel and later Romantic landscape. The chapel helps trace the shift from garrison to parish life.
The full story
The fortress was established in the eighth or ninth century in a largely agricultural territory. Its high position helped protect the surrounding population. Following the conquest of Lisbon in 1147, it surrendered to forces loyal to Afonso Henriques. A 1154 charter granted privileges to thirty inhabitants charged with maintaining a settlement and the region’s security. In the later twelfth century, the chapel within the castle became a parish seat, and work continued under King Sancho I. King Ferdinand I ordered rebuilding in 1375, but the castle’s military role was already weakening as residents moved toward Sintra’s old village. Religious use of the chapel outlasted the garrison; eventually the parish moved into town. Abandonment and the 1755 earthquake left damaged structures. Ferdinand II started conservation in 1840, stabilising walls, tending the chapel and planting the site. The ridge you see now therefore records several phases: defensive occupation, a small community, decline and a deliberate Romantic restoration.