The final site for me to visit in Sintra was the Quinta de Regaleira, another palatial grounds but this one was much more fun than the other two.
The main buildings are a large house, which was closed on my visit, and a small church, which was open but its the grounds that are the main attraction here.
I found my way up here from an underground staircase. A small chapel indeed.
There are a number of grottos. This is Leda's cave.
and there are a number of towers which you can climb, if you can negotiate the tiny staircases.
This little construction leads to one of many tunnels that run into the hillside.
One of them opens out into the base of the Initiation Well, an inverted tower, which when I saw online gave me the main reason to come to this town. It looks like something out of video games Shadow of the Colossus and I'm wondering if Fumito Ueda got inspiration from this.
A vertical pano taken from half way up, messing with the perspective as you can see the base and the top. MC Escher would be pleased.
and a view from the top looking down, messing with the perspective again as I take a photo of my own head (it was really a German look-a-like)
Behind a waterfall I found another little foot bridge, this looking like something from Takeshi's Castle.
Fortunately, none of these steps sank.
More tunnels and another inverted tower, this one wasn't as far progressed and couldn't be climbed however.
A view from the palace looking back at the entrance.
Knowing less about this place than both the castle and the palace, so expectations were lower but the inverted tower was stunning and I loved the fact you could explore the grounds and find tunnels, and towers all of which could be interacted with. I spent hours in here before heading back and I definitely recommend it.
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