Sintra Mitos e Lendas

The Sintra Myths and Legends Interactive Centre, in Sintra, presents the town’s imaginative dimension through an immersive language. Opened in 2015, it proposes a journey through time and space, where myths and legends are historically framed and placed in dialogue with music, literature and local memory. The route is spread across 17 spaces and crosses reality and fiction through set design, multimedia and sensory experiences. Technology appears as a narrative medium: there are touchscreens, video mapping, augmented reality, 3D films, sensory effects and holograms. Among the stories evoked are the Creation of the Crags, the Tomb of the Two Brothers and the Seven Sighs. The centre reveals a Sintra made not only of palaces and landscape, but also of narratives transmitted, reinvented and staged to show the cultural force of its imagination.

Why it matters

The interactive centre Sintra Mitos & Lendas opened to the public in 2015, housed in the Sintra Town Council tourist office building in the town’s historic centre. Conceived as a cultural interpretation space, it was created to present Sintra’s mysterious dimension through narratives that combine myth, local memory and historical context. The route was designed as a journey through time and imagination, showing how legends help explain the landscape, the monuments and the town’s own reputation as a place of Romanticism, secrecy and spirituality. This approach is especially meaningful in a territory inscribed by UNESCO as the Cultural Landscape of Sintra, recognised for its singular combination of nature and human creation and for Sintra’s pioneering role in 19th-century European Romantic architecture. In 2021, the centre reopened with renewed contents and a strengthened educational programme, in coordination with the NewsMuseum. More than simply gathering popular stories, the centre organises a wide-ranging body of intangible heritage — from the legendary creation of the rocky heights to narratives of Moorish maidens, apparitions and fantastic beings — and presents it in an accessible way, linking oral tradition, literature, local history and contemporary exhibition technologies.

Architecture and history

From an architectural point of view, the space is distinguished less by the monumentality of the building and more by the way its museography transforms an urban structure in the historic centre into a vertical and immersive narrative. The visit unfolds across several floors, beginning in the lift and continuing from level 3 down to level -1, creating a progressive descent into Sintra’s symbolic universe. The resources used include scenography, touch screens, video mapping, augmented reality, 3D films, life-size holograms, kinetic experiences and multisensory environments with sound, light, smell and wind. The panoramic wall of the hills and the interactive tablets connect the interior with the external geography, while the tunnel simulating the Initiation Well creates a direct bridge to one of the imaginary worlds most strongly associated with Sintra. There are also immersive sequences, such as the sea crossing with Adamastor, and areas where the pagan universe is recreated through forest scenographies, animals and fairy-like figures. The project brought together architects, scenographers, scriptwriters, historians and audiovisual specialists, and it includes accessibility solutions such as subtitled tablets and descriptive audio guides.

More context

During the visit, it is worth following closely the narrative sequence of the 17 exhibition spaces. The lift works as a sensory prologue, preparing the entrance to a route in which Sintra first appears as landscape and then as legendary territory. On the upper floor, the introduction to the hills and to the Creation of the Rocky Heights, linked to the Legend of the Five Peaks with the Same Names and Different Surnames of Sintra, helps explain how the centre frames myth within a reading of place. On the following floors, special attention should be paid to the sections devoted to the Tomb of the Two Brothers and the Legend of the Seven Sighs, presented through holograms and interactive experiences. Another important moment is the space dedicated to writers captivated by Sintra, where literature and cultural memory intersect. The multisensory experience about the apparition of Our Lady to the mute girl tending sheep in the hills adds a religious dimension to the route. On the lower floor, the tunnel inspired by the Initiation Well, the maritime journey with Adamastor and the scenographies linked to nature, animals and fairies show how the centre turns scattered legends into a coherent interpretation of Sintra’s identity.