When we think of Disney films the first image that normally pops into our head are the princesses we first met in our childhood – Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Belle, Rapunzel – and with them comes an image of their world. A world filled with palaces, castles on top of steep mountains, towers, dense green forests, and small medieval towns. It’s no wonder since many of these stories were based on old fairy-tales and legends from centuries ago. But this type of imagery is exactly what inspired the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The idealized world of the pre-modern era. Before industrialism removed mystery and superstitious reverence towards Nature in favor of scientifically cold ways of measuring Nature for profit.
It was precisely these images that attracted some of Europe’s most renowned artists and writers to Sintra and made it the Portuguese capital of Romanticism. In this lush landscape filled with palaces of diverse architecture and chapels hidden in the forest lingered names like Henry Fielding, Robert Southey, Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Hans Christian Andersen, Lord Tennyson, and Lord Byron.
Sintra has been called a “Disneyland for adults”. It wasn’t built with that purpose, but the image it was built to convey is what ultimately inspired that comparison. That is the only connection to Disney… Or is it?
The Disney castle featured on its logo was inspired by Neuschwanstein in Germany and it is a true architectural marvel. But it is not the first produced under the influence of Romanticism. Around 30 years before in Sintra, King Ferdinand II started building Pena Palace (1839) with a clear romantic expression. The king – an artist himself – wanted to build something to impress but also that paid homage to Portuguese history and architecture. The result was the first Romantic palace in the world and one of Portugal’s most cherished sights.
The connections don’t end there though: both were built on top of high steep mountains, both took advantage of pre-existing old ruins as foundations, and both were designed by the imagination of German kings. King Ferdinand
II was indeed from Bavaria (he married the Portuguese queen to become king-consort) just like King Ludwig II, responsible for Neuschwanstein. Along with the palace, Ferdinand restored part of the nearby Moorish Castle and forested the entire mountain giving it the enchanted forest look it has today. His statue at the entrance of Sintra is a good testimony of how important he was in recreating this old town for the modern world.
So, if you’re looking for inspiration or want to feel what the romantics felt as they looked to nature, you know where to go!
You can find out a lot more on our Sintra Tour!
João Varanda, Tour Guide
