Sintra

[ticklish_frog]

Sintra is a small town some 30 kilometers west of Lisboa, a traditional summer residence for Portuguese aristocracy and an almost authentic medieval town for the tourists:

(the entrance to the garden of some successful doctor from the XIX century)

And the house of that doctor looks nice as well:

Other parts of the garden contain fake castles in Moorish style:

fountains:

and of course a small family church:

People of more modest lifestyle left behind a castle (it was build by Moors as one of the southern defence point in the Iberica; after raising some tensions with local kings, it was sold "as is" to the Portuguese prince, and was defending the surrounding villages since then):

Interesting to mention: every New Year Eve the soldiers make a tremendous woodfire on the top of the highest hill (the castle cover a span of several hills and valleys), just to remind of their existence to the peasants around (and of course to remind about their taxes due as well :)).

There is an alternative castle next door (or better put, "next hill"), not that powerful, but still nice:

The most interesting thing for Polonca, as she is an architect, apparently is the way those Moors put the walls together:

(the layers of small stones connect the ones with the large).