Sintra

Sister cities

• Honolulu
• Oviedo
• Bissau
• Havana
• Honolulu County
• Lobito
• El Jadida
• Petrópolis
• Fontainebleau

History

The earliest remnants of human occupation were discovered in Penha Verde: these vestiges testify to an occupation dating to the early Paleolithic. Comparable remnants were discovered in an open-air site in São Pedro de Canaferrim, alongside the chapel of the Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle), dating back to the Neolithic, and include decorated ceramics and microlithic flint utensils from the 5th millennium BC. Ceramic fragments found locally including many late Chalcolithic vases from the Sintra mountains suggest that between the fourth and third millennia B.C. the region (adjacent to the present village of Sintra) was occupied by a Neolithic/Chalcolithic settlement, with characteristics comparable to fortified settlements in Lisbon and Setúbal. The design was a project of the Baron von Eschwege and Ferdinand II, to substitute the Sintra National Palace as an alternative to the summer residence in Cascais. After Sintra, the monarchs Louis of Portugal (1861–1889) and Carlos of Portugal (1863–1908) ended their summers with visits to Cascais in the months of September and October. In 1854, the first contract was signed to construct a rail link between Sintra and Lisbon. A decree signed on 26 June 1855 regulated the contract between the government and Count Claranges Lucotte but was later rescinded in 1861. The connection was finally inaugurated on 2 April 1887. By the beginning of the 20th century, Sintra was recognized as a summer resort visited by aristocrats and millionaires. Among these, Carvalho Monteiro, owner of a considerable fortune (known as "Monteiro dos Milhões) constructed near the main town, on an estate he bought from the Baroness of Regaleira, a luxurious revivalist palacette, based on a Neo-Manueline architecture. From the second half of the 19th…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  25,508
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  21,539
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  20,408
• Black Redstart

  Phoenicurus ochruros (S.G.Gmelin, 1774) · Aves
  17,396
• Spotless Starling

  Sturnus unicolor Temminck, 1820 · Aves
  15,510
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  15,398
• White Wagtail

  Motacilla alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  13,982
• European Serin

  Serinus serinus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11,750