Why go
The National Palace's long history includes both absence and confinement. As royal attention shifted toward Vila Viçosa, Mafra and Queluz, Sintra became less central to court circuits. The imprisonment of Afonso VI at the town palace gives its later seventeenth-century rooms a very different meaning from a summer retreat.
The full story
After the death of Cardinal-King Henrique, Portugal came under the Spanish Habsburg crown until the Restoration of 1640. Sintra's earlier royal importance diminished as the Braganza center at Vila Viçosa gained weight. Later, war with Spain and new royal projects at Mafra and Queluz drew attention elsewhere. Sintra still hosted ceremonial entries by Queen Luísa de Gusmão and João IV in the 1650s. Its most striking episode of the period came after Afonso VI was deposed in a 1667 power struggle. His brother Pedro became regent, and Afonso spent years in custody at several locations. From 1674 until his death in 1683 he was confined in the town palace. The building therefore served very different royal purposes over time: residence, seat of decision and prison. That contrast is a useful lens when visiting the National Palace.