the philosophical garden of the millionaire monteiro
Regaleira is not an old estate reused or a restored medieval castle, even though it looks like both. It's a work from the early 20th century, designed between 1898 and 1911 on commission from António Augusto de Carvalho Monteiro, Brazilian by origin, heir to a fortune from the coffee and precious stone trade, and therefore known in Lisbon as Monteiro dos Milhões (Monteiro of the Millions). D. Carlos I distinguished him in 1904 with the title of Baron of Almeida. Carvalho Monteiro bought the property in 1892, and commissioned the work from Italian architect Luigi Manini, former set designer for La Scala in Milan and the São Carlos in Lisbon, also the author of the Palácio do Bussaco. The complex has been classified as a Property of Public Interest since 2002, and is part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995.
What you see is neo-Manueline, neo-Gothic, and neo-Renaissance architecture, built on four hectares of hillside. The palace itself has a facade decorated with exuberant Manueline elements (armillary spheres, ropes, plant motifs), and was completed around 1910, still under the monarchy. The stone of the tunnels and grottoes was imported from the coastal edge of Peniche, and in various elements was treated with lichens and chemical techniques to create an aged patina. The look of something old is deliberate. There are no Templar foundations, no hidden medieval origins: it's early 20th-century symbolic stage design pretending to be centuries old.
What makes the estate unique is Carvalho Monteiro's iconological programme. He was a cultured man, a collector of rare books, and a careful reader of the European esoteric tradition (Freemasonry, Templars, Rosicrucians, Dante's Divine Comedy, alchemy). The Quinta was conceived as a symbolic circuit, with named pieces arranged in sequence: Patamar dos Deuses, Portal dos Guardiães, Lago da Cascata, Chapel, Terraço das Quimeras, Greenhouse, and several grottoes (of the Labyrinth, the Aquarium, the Virgin, Leda). The most famous piece is the Initiatic Well, an inverted tower about 27 metres deep, organised in nine levels separated by flights of fifteen steps each, in a spiral staircase supported by columns. At the bottom, inlaid in marble, is an eight-pointed compass rose over a Templar cross, the heraldic emblem of Carvalho Monteiro himself. The descent is an allegory of the Divine Comedy: nine circles of Hell, nine sections of Purgatory, nine heavens of Paradise.
The entrance to the well is hidden among the rocks. From the bottom, underground tunnels lined with Peniche stone connect the well to other points of the estate (to the Entrada dos Guardiães, to the Lago da Cascata, to the Poço Imperfeito, this last about nine metres deep). Walking through the tunnels is part of the circuit. The chapel next to the palace, recently restored, has a crypt accessible via the same underground network. As for the palace itself, only the noble floor is open to the public (the rest is not part of the circuit): you'll see the Billiard Room (or Kings' Room, with furniture recently rescued at auction) and some of the original decorative pieces.
Go right at opening time, at 10am. In July and August Regaleira is one of the most crowded places in Portugal, and the narrow levels of the Initiatic Well queue seriously by mid-morning. In January and February you have the place almost to yourself, with the downside of Sintra's cold (and the humidity inside the tunnels).
the whole scene
- early 20th-century neo-Manueline complex, designed by Luigi Manini for Carvalho Monteiro
- four hectares of hillside with palace, chapel, grottoes, towers, lakes, and tunnels
- Initiatic Well, 27 m deep with nine levels, allegory of the Divine Comedy
- tunnel stone imported from Peniche, with chemical patinas faking antiquity
- only the noble floor of the palace is open to visit, the rest is garden and underground
