A 27-metre well that was never a well, built for initiations
António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, Monteiro the Millionaire, bought this estate above Sintra in 1892 and between 1904 and 1910 had the Italian architect Luigi Manini turn it into a place built out of symbols said to come from alchemy, Freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians: a Gothic palace, a chapel and four hectares of park left deliberately wild at the top. The heart of it goes down. The Initiation Well was never a well. It is an inverted tower, a spiral staircase 27 metres deep in nine flights with 23 niches, ending at a compass star with a Templar cross set in the floor, and tunnels lead from the bottom to grottoes, a waterfall lake and a second, unfinished shaft. The story told about it is that candidates went down blindfolded with a sword held to the heart, found their way through the dark and climbed back up to the chapel to be welcomed. A Japanese corporation kept it closed for ten years; Sintra’s council bought it and opened it to the public in 1998.
Sintra, Portugal
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Other places on the map within a couple of hours of here.
