Walls and towers were restored and the surrounding hills were planted with trees, vines, and shrubs while paths and gardens were additionally incorporated into the renaissance styled romantic landscape that the King envisioned. In 1840, King Ferdinand II began repairs on the ancient fortress, as to add to the expanding palatial gardens of nearby Pena Palace. They were eventually forced out of the structure and it was completely abandoned by the early 16th century where it gradually fell into disrepair and decay through fire, earthquake, and general neglect. After its capture by Portuguese forces, the fort remained a seat of power in the region for several hundred years before being partially abandoned and reinhabited by the local Jewish population. Long considered siege-proof and undefeatable, the peaceful conquest of the defensive outpost by Henriques was one of the main turning points in the European’s efforts to remove the ruling North African Moors from the continent, and set Portugal on the road to its own independent history throughout the next near millennia.īuilt some 300 years prior, the Castle of the Moors stood on one of the highest points in the area, safeguarding the important trade town of Sintra, and the largely agricultural region around it, from attack. In 1147, the Moorish forces in southwestern Iberia surrendered a key piece of defensive real estate to the Christian forces led by Afonso Henriques: Castelo dos Mouros, or Castle of the Moors.

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