Sintra has borne witness to nearly all periods in Portuguese history. More than this, Sintra is a treasure trove of vestiges of the history of Humanity itself.

From the Palaeolithic and Neolithic to the Bronze and Iron Ages , followed by the Roman Moorish occupations, and from the foundation of Portugal (on 9 January 1154, King D. Afonso Henriques granted a charter to the town of Sintra) to the Discoveries, Sintra - which survived the 1755 earthquake - experienced its own golden age during the late 18th and throughout the 19th century.