Quinta da Regaleira: the Initiation Well, tickets and hours

Quinta da Regaleira is the strangest of Sintra's major visits. It was built neither by kings nor by religious orders, but by a millionaire — António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, who made his fortune in Brazil and had a complete iconographic programme constructed here between 1904 and 1910: alchemy, freemasonry, the Order of Christ, classical mythology, all translated into stone by the Italian architect Luigi Manini.

The result is a garden you read. Every tower, grotto, bench and path is there for a symbolic reason, and the underground route between the grottoes and wells is an allegory of death and rebirth. Unlike Pena, you do not need to understand any of it to enjoy it — but it helps.

The Initiation Well and how to skip the queue

The Initiation Well is an inverted tower about 27 metres deep with nine spiralling landings, connected by tunnels to other grottoes in the garden. It was never a water well: it was a ceremonial space.

The queue

Because the staircase is narrow and in practice one-way, a queue always forms at the top entrance. Between 11:00 and 15:00 in high season it can reach 30 or 40 minutes.

The two fixes

• Arrive at opening and go straight to the well before seeing anything else. It is the only moment of the day when you descend without waiting.
• Go up instead of down. Enter through the lower grotto, reach the bottom of the well from the other side, and climb the staircase — almost queue-free, because nearly everyone does it the other way round.

What else there is to see

• The Regaleira Palace. Five storeys in neo-Manueline style, with rooms open on the ground and upper floors.
• The Chapel of the Holy Trinity. A worked façade with a crypt beneath, connected to the tunnel system.
• The grottoes and tunnels. Several dimly lit underground routes linking distant parts of the garden.
• The Waterfall Lake. Crossed on stepping stones set above the water — the most enjoyable passage in the garden.
• The Terrace of the Celestial Worlds and the Regaleira Tower. The high points, looking out over the hills.
• The Unfinished Well. The second well, never completed, and far less visited than the Initiation Well.