CINTRA, town of central Portugal (modern spelling, Sin tra), 17m. W.N.W. of Lisbon by the Lisbon-Cacem-Cintra rail way, and 6m. N. by E. of Cape da Roca, the westernmost prom ontory of the European mainland. Pop. (191I ), 7,091. Cintra is magnificently situated on the northern slope of the Serra da Cintra, a rugged mountain mass, largely overgrown with pines, eucalyptus, cork and other forest trees, above which the principal summits rise in a succession of bare and jagged grey peaks; the highest being Cruz Alta (I,77 a f t.) . Every educated Portuguese is familiar with the verses in which the beauty of Cintra is cele brated by Byron in Childe Harold (1812), and by Camoens in the national epic Os Lusiadas (1572). One of the highest points of the Serra is surmounted by the Palacio da Pena, a fantastic imitation of a mediaeval fortress, built on the site of a Hiero nymite convent by the prince consort Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg (d. 1885) ; while an adjacent part of the range is occupied by the Castello des Mouros, an extensive Moorish fortification con taining a small ruined mosque and a very curious set of ancient cisterns.
In the town itself the most conspicuous building is a I4th-15th century royal palace, partly Moorish, partly debased Gothic in style, and remarkable for the two immense conical chimneys. The 18th-century Palacio de Seteaes is said to derive its name ("Seven Ahs") from a sevenfold echo ; here, on Aug. 22, was signed the convention of Cintra, by which the British and Portuguese allowed the French army to evacuate the kingdom. Beside the road which leads for 31m. W. to the village of Col lares, celebrated for its wine, is the Penha Verde, an interesting country house and chapel, founded by Dom Joao de Castro (150o-1548), fourth viceroy of India. Castro also founded the Capuchin convent of Santa Cruz, better known as the Cork con vent. Beyond the Penha Verde, on the Collares road, are the palace and park of Mentserrate. The palace was originally built by William Beckford, the novelist and traveller (1761-1844), and was purchased in 1856 by Sir Francis Cook, an Englishman, who afterwards obtained the Portuguese title viscount of Montserrate. The park, with its tropical luxuriance of vegetation and its variety of lake, forest and mountain scenery, is by far the finest example of landscape gardening in the Iberian Peninsula, and probably among the finest in the world.