Talking Location With author Susan Roebuck – Sintra

27th January 2018

#TalkingLocationWith… author Susan Roebuck, whose suspense novel “Forest Dancer” is set in Sintra, Portugal.

Lisbon is a beautiful hubbub of activity, colourful buildings, and blessed with a light so pure that it out-rivals that of San Francisco. Artists love the place.

They also love Sintra, which is just twenty kilometres north-west of Lisbon, for its exquisite historic architecture and beautiful scenery. In days gone by, royalty and the elite were also enticed to this relatively small town because of its milder climate.

Great Britain and Portugal form Europe’s oldest alliance (the Portuguese know this, but I’m not sure about the British) when Queen Philippa of Lancaster married Dom João I in the 14^th century. She loved the National Town Palace in Sintra, which had been started a century before and her husband continued by sponsoring a major rebuilding.

Sintra’s Town Palace with its famous huge kitchen chimneys.

The gossips said that Dom João was unfaithful to his English bride. In order to prove them wrong he had one of the medieval Palace’s rooms painted with as many magpies as there were ladies at court. The Magpie Room is still in good repair today as is the rest of this breath-taking Palace.

Today, Sintra (designated a World Heritage Site) is still an array of stately homes, palaces, and castles, all set in the cool green hills that are covered in a lush forest of eucalyptus, acacia and pine. The area has been designated a protected National Park where people can enjoy hiking, cycling, mountain biking, Nordic walking and horse-riding in temperatures which, in summer, can be several degrees lower than Lisbon. The walks cater for all levels and can be any distance you like, or, if they’re organised, between 5 kms and 25 kms. In many spots along the route you can see through the trees to the sunny golden beaches in the distance, not more than 12 kms away.

Forested countryside

One of the most famous hikes is to take the steep hill (or get a taxi or a horse-drawn carriage) from the National Town Palace to the magnificent Pena Palace at the top of the mountain (also known as Monte de Lua – the Moon Mountain). From the top you can pretend to be king of all you survey.

When I first came to Portugal with my parents (when I was fourteen), we used to walk several kilometres from Colares – the next village from Sintra nearer the coast – up the steep road to Monserrate Palace which is right in the centre of the forest. Once we got there we’d head into the Palace which is a type of structure more likely found in India than Portugal. I loved the extensive gardens, which are famous for rare plant species, and would roll down the manicured lawns, just outside the Palace State Room. Everything is on a slope in this part of the world.

Monserrate Palace, an exotic palatial villa.

Colares is well known for its delicious wine and it is said its vines produce the most distinctive still wines, the reds being aged for years. (Here’s a hint: they say that the best vintage was 2007).

On the other side of Sintra is the village of São Pedro de Sintra which is famous for its antique shops, its Sunday flea market and traditional, cosy restaurants (remember it can get a little chilly in these parts).

São Pedro de Sintra village

São Pedro de Sintra village. This is where you’ll find excellent restaurants serving local and national dishes – the one I recommend is this one

A gatehouse in the forest (is that a ghost at the window?), a stately home, and handicrafts as well as a packet of delicious Queijadas de Sintra (which have now been eaten).

I named my book “Forest Dancer” because I love forests, and I hope I added some interesting facts about trees in it. I have changed the names of places so that I could take some “liberties” with them, but anyone who knows this part of Portugal will have no doubt that the main town in the book is Sintra.

Portugal, in my view, is a small country with the huge heart and I wanted to portray that in my book “Forest Dancer”. Sintra is also dear to me – being English I love the climate. I also wanted to incorporate the magical side to it not only the forest, but also the mystical megalithic rocks, thrown up from a volcano a millennia ago.

Thank you so much to Sue for sharing her love of Sintra. You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook and via her website   You can buy a copy of Forest Dancer through your preferred book seller on the TripFiction Website.

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