Castillo de Šantara

Today: Castelo dos Mouros, Sintra

Place: Šantara (Sintra)
Kind: Castle
Built: 8th to 9th century
What remains: Standing
Visiting: Open to visit

The fortress the Muslims built in the 8th and 9th centuries on a crag of the Sintra hills, to watch the roads to Mafra, Cascais and Lisbon. Of the Andalusi work the sources single out the "Arab gate" with its horseshoe arch; the walls crowning the rock were reworked by Sancho I and Fernando I and largely rebuilt from 1839 and in 1939, so most of what a visitor sees is later.

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