Why go
This period explains the town's links to vineyards, mills, religious institutions and royal landholding. It gives the streets around the National Palace and the countryside toward Colares a shared history, while records of taxation and plague reveal lives beyond the court.
The full story
After the conquest, the crown distributed land across Sintra's fertile territory to monasteries and military orders. Afonso Henriques granted houses and estates near the palace to the Templar master Gualdim Pais; other institutions held vines, mills and farms at places including Almargem and Colares. These grants helped organize the wider district, not just the royal town. By the thirteenth century, Sintra had a crown representative and locally chosen judges. A 1281 record says free Muslims in Colares challenged their dues; King Dinis reduced the charge in exchange for work at the town palace. The same documents show how authority, farming and palace labor connected the district's communities. The Black Death reached Sintra in 1348, and a document two years later records the deaths of five municipal notaries. In 1372 King Fernando gave Sintra to Leonor Teles, bringing the town directly into the dynastic politics that soon followed.