The mysterious inverted tower steeped in Templar myth
Fernando Teixeira & Izabela Cardosa
At the heart of Sintra’s Quinta da Regaleira, a breath-taking initiation well celebrates Portugal’s unique historical connection to the mysterious Knights Templar.
Near the manicured gardens and hilltop villas of Sintra, Portugal, lies the fairytale estate of
Quinta da Regaleira. Protected within a Unesco World Heritage landscape, Quinta da Regaleira is a postcard-perfect mix of Gothic, Egyptian, Moorish and Renaissance architecture. But it’s what lies beneath the palace’s gardens that truly sets the estate’s design apart. A pair of wells, called the Initiation Wells, spiral down deep within the earth, like inverted towers. The wells were never used to collect water. Instead, they were part of a mysterious initiation ritual within the Knights of Templar tradition.
Quinta da Regaleira has had many owners over the decades, but it was António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, one of the wealthiest men in Portugal at the turn of the 20th Century, who made the estate what it is today.
