Moorish Castle, Sintra: the Walls, the Ticket and the Walk Up

A Lookout Over the Coast and the Road to Lisbon

Parques de Sintra dates the castle's foundation to the 10th century, when the Moors held the Iberian Peninsula. The site was chosen for what it could see. From one of the peaks of the Serra de Sintra it watched the Atlantic coastline, the plain and the hills, and it guarded both the surrounding land and the sea approaches to Lisbon.

The walls run across the ridge in granite blocks laid between boulders and cliffs, which is why the line of the fortification bends the way it does. The rock is part of the wall.

A Village Inside the Walls

The castle was not only a garrison. Finds on the site show that a population lived between and around the walls, in an area now called the Islamic Quarter. The silos you pass are pits carved into the rock, inside and outside the fortification, used to store food such as cereals.

In 1147, after the conquest of Lisbon and Santarém, Sintra was handed over to Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal. A Christian population settled inside the walls, the Islamic quarter gave way to a medieval town, and that town lasted into the 15th century. It included the Church of São Pedro de Canaferrim, built between the two rings of walls. Once the fighting between Moors and Christians was long over, people no longer needed the shelter of the castle and the site was slowly abandoned.

The Romantic Restoration

What you walk today owes a great deal to Ferdinand II, the same king who built Pena Palace on the next hill. In the 19th century he restored the castle in the Romantic spirit of the time. The works disturbed part of the Christian burial ground by the church, so he had a tomb built for the bones that were found. Nobody could tell whether the remains were Christian or Moorish, and the tomb says so: "What man brought together, only God may separate".

The restoration is why the castle photographs so well and why it matters to read it carefully. The line of the walls is old. Much of the finish on top of them is a 19th-century idea of what a medieval castle should look like.

The walk is a loop along the walls with the church and the older remains between the two rings. What each stop is comes from the operator's own list. Why it is worth the stop is our reading.

The Interpretation Centre

The Church of São Pedro de Canaferrim now houses the Historical Interpretation Centre of the Moorish Castle. It tells the story of the people who lived on this ridge from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages through the archaeological finds and interactive displays. Parques de Sintra notes that the church, which you reach before the first line of walls, has a lifting platform for visitors with reduced mobility.

It is also the right first stop. The walls make more sense once you know the site held a village, a church and a burial ground, not only soldiers.

The Walls and the View of Pena

The parapet walk is the reason most people pay. From the walls you look over the town, across to Pena Palace and, further out, to the Atlantic. The Castle Keep and the Royal Tower are named stops along the way.

The walls follow the rock, so the path climbs and drops with it. Parques de Sintra publishes no step count or gradient for the castle circuit, and we do not print one. Wear shoes with grip, especially after rain, when granite gets slippery.

The variable is how you arrive. The castle circuit itself is the same whichever way you come. What changes the day is the choice between bus 434 and one of the marked trails, and whether Pena sits on the same ticket day.

Two constraints shape every version. Last admission is 17:30, so a castle visit after an afternoon Pena slot is only safe if the slot is early enough to leave you on the walls well before then. And the ticket office closes 12:00 to 13:00, which matters only if you plan to buy on the spot without using the machines.

The one-day route that uses this order is on Sintra in 1 day.

Bus 434

From Sintra train station, Scotturb bus 434 runs up to the Moorish Castle and on to Pena. Parques de Sintra names it as the public transport route to the castle. Scotturb publishes no readable fare page, so the fare is not a figure we can print.

If you drove to Sintra, the operator's advice is to leave the car in the historic centre or a peripheral car park and continue by bus or on foot. The station, the car parks and the stops are on getting around Sintra, and the train from Lisbon is on Lisbon to Sintra.

The Three Marked Trails

Parques de Sintra marks three walking trails to the castle. The distances and times below are the operator's own. They are forest paths uphill from the town, and the right one depends on where you start.

The Villa Sassetti Trail is the quickest from the historic centre, and Villa Sassetti itself is free, open 10:00 to 18:00. The Santa Maria Trail suits anyone staying up in São Pedro de Penaferrim. The Seteais Trail is the longest and starts on the road past Quinta da Regaleira.

All three are on the Sintra hiking page.

Access for Reduced Mobility

The castle is more accessible than its setting suggests. According to Parques de Sintra's accessibility page, the route through the inner walls is accessible with care on the steep sections, where traction equipment for manual wheelchairs is recommended. A lifting platform takes wheelchair users up to the top of the walls, and another serves the church.

Folding wheelchairs and the traction equipment are available by reservation, and without a reservation they depend on availability. The shop, the cafeteria and the toilets inside are step-free. There is a parking space for disabled visitors.

Disabled visitors pay 50% of the ticket and the companion enters free.

Dogs Are Welcome

The Moorish Castle is one of only two Parques de Sintra sites that take dogs. The other is the park at Monserrate. Pena, the National Palace, the Capuchos and Queluz do not, so a day out with a dog on the hill is the castle, not Pena.

Assistance dogs are admitted at every site.

The Ticket Office Closes for Lunch

The castle ticket office closes 12:00 to 13:00. The automatic vending machines keep selling through that hour. If you already hold an online ticket, the closure does not affect you.

If you plan to pay by the staffed desk, for example to use the free Sunday entry for residents of Portugal, arrive before noon or after one.

Closed Days and Weather

Parques de Sintra closes its sites on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January. Sites can also close at short notice for fire risk in the forest or extreme weather. In one closure notice for strong winds, Parques de Sintra shut the castle, Pena, Monserrate and the Capuchos on the same day.

In autumn and winter, check the operator's site on the morning you go. Inside the walls there is a cafeteria, a shop and toilets.

• The castle was a village as well as a fort. People lived in an Islamic quarter between and around the walls, and stored cereals in silos cut into the rock (Parques de Sintra, history of the Moorish Castle).
• The medieval Church of São Pedro de Canaferrim stands between the two rings of walls and now holds the castle's Historical Interpretation Centre (Parques de Sintra, history of the Moorish Castle).
• A lifting platform takes wheelchair users to the top of the walls (Parques de Sintra, accessibility page for the Moorish Castle).
• Only two Parques de Sintra sites admit dogs, the Moorish Castle and the park at Monserrate (Parques de Sintra, FAQ).
• Archaeologists have been digging here since 1976, and a research field was set up in 2009 (Parques de Sintra, history of the Moorish Castle).

With Pena, on One Day

The castle and Pena share a hill and a bus line, and the order that works is castle first. Buy both in one online purchase for the two-site discount, take the palace slot in the afternoon as Parques de Sintra suggests, and use the morning for the walls. The slot rules for Pena are on Pena Palace tickets, and a full routing is on Sintra in 1 day.

On a Slower Second Day

If Pena and Regaleira fill the first day, the castle works on a second morning with a walk up from town on a marked trail, and a return down into the village for lunch. The two-day plan is on Sintra in 2 days.