The Convent
With
a typical Mediterranean architecture and designed with the
elements that are proper to Sintra's houses, the Convento de
São Saturnino is one of those works that thanks to its small
but well proportioned dimensions, ingenious labyrinthic shapes
and perfect integration within the paradisiacal valley where it
was born, surely proofs to be a place of peace, rest and
serenity, where the proximity of the sea and the mountain where
it can be found, grant it a unique quality, where everything is
different and time almost ceases to exist.
Today, the Convent is a reconstruction of an enormous entangled
set of old ruins, where many connected rooms existed side by
side with some water-mills and maybe a lighthouse, being all of
them, most probably, the result of an earlier work. During the
reconstruction which started in 1998, inumerous archeological
remains where found at the site, and that, along with documental
records, point to the strong possibility of having existed there
a cult to Saint Saturnino, the one who was also venerated at a
ermitage placed high up in the mountain, at about one hour walk
from these constructions, in the place now known as Peninha.
One
thing is sure: transformed throughout the centuries and several
times forgotten, this place's history is lost in time. Today,
however, it reveals, in total harmony with Nature, its secret
interior, like a book of images from the past.
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