Occupied since the Neolithic, Cascais is one of the most beautiful Portuguese villages, a fishing and farming village. From the nineteenth century, due to its landscape beauty and proximity to the capital, it has aroused the interest of the Portuguese and foreign bourgeois elites. This dynamic resulted in the construction of flashy buildings. The Cais do Sodré – Cascais railway line, especially after its electrification in the 1930s, brought even greater economic dynamism to the village as well as to all the coastal areas.
We will go all the way to Cascais and then to Praia do Guincho. Beautiful, mystical and medieval, Sintra is immersed in a freshness and shade that never dissipate, it delights us with palaces and buildings that can not be found anywhere else. It does not escape the successive attacks of occupation and consequent transformations. Every corner has a history, every building has a unique architecture. Sintra is one of the most popular places for tourists visiting Lisbon. From Sintra we will go on a more natural tour and that no war or occupation has been able to modify for centuries. At Cabo da Roca, the westernmost tip of the European continental shelf, we only have one local signpost, a lighthouse and a hand-craft store.
The rest is landscape.
We now head to Azenhas do Mar, a beautiful village built on top of a hill, an indispensable propaganda board for our country abroad. “Watermill” is a mechanism that takes advantage of the flow of water to move mills and it is precisely the existence of some of these equipment that give the name to the village.
Mafra is a village famous for its Palace-Convent. It was built by Dom João V in the eighteenth century and is the greatest work in the country in Baroque style. The palace has 1200 rooms, 4700 doors and windows, 156 staircases and 29 courtyards. The palace also has two bell chimes out of a total of 98, the largest in the eighteenth century. There is much more to discover about this fantastic palace.
Thank you for traveling with us.
Arado Azul team.