Why to walk the Vila Sassetti trail in Sintra

If you visit Sintra, there is a good chance that the Palácio da Pena is on your program. To get from the historic centre to the Pena Palace, you have all kinds of options. But if you’re in good health, a very nice thing to do is to walk through the gardens of the beautiful Vila Sassetti. It is not possible to visit the inside of the villa, but the serpentine paths through the garden alone make it a wonderful stop on your Sintra tour. And it’s for free!

From Sintra village to Vila Sassetti

From the centre of Sintra you can easily walk to the entrance of the estate in a few minutes. If you stand with your back to the Posto de Turismo, you will see the jeweller Arneiro1969 on your right. Next to this jeweller, you can take a staircase up, called the Escadinhas Félix Nunes. At the top of the stairs, turn right onto Rua Fonta da Pipa and walk up to the left with the Tascantiga on your right. Turn left at the top of the road and you will almost immediately see the brown sign with ‘Vila Sassetti’ on your right hand. Take that road to the right, walk up until you see the gate with again ‘Vila Sassetti’ on it. Please note, the gate is only open during the day! Step inside the garden to begin your visit.

Zigzagging up to the villa

Sintra is located on a hill, which you will certainly be aware of at this point. Also here, you keep walking uphill. You can opt for the steeper stairs, but it’s more easy and more fun to zigzag along the paths. Then you pass the babbling brooks and benches hidden among the greenery. The higher you get, the more beautiful the view of the village where you just started the walk. Very beautiful in the garden are the many camellias, rhododendrons, agapanthus, banana plants and palms. When you pass under the pergola, you have almost reached the villa.

Vila Sassetti

The unique Vila Sassetti is the former holiday home of hotel tycoon Victor Carlos Sassetti. He was born in Sintra on 20 October 1851 and owned the Hotel Victor on the Largo Ferreira do Castro in Sintra and the Braganza Hotel in Lisbon. Where the aristocracy and other important figures settled in the villas and hotels of Sintra in the summer, Sassetti dreamed of his own chalet on the green hill. Thanks to the popularity of Hotel Braganza, he earned enough money to make his dream come true. In 1890 he commissioned the construction from architect and friend Luigi Manini, who had previously contributed to the decoration of the Hotel Braganza.

The result is a unique building, inspired by the castles of Lombardy, the region where the Sassetti’s originally came from. Most prominent is the large tower with three floors, around which are extensions of all sizes. Everything is built with the natural stone granite from the Sintra region. As in so many of the villas and palaces in Sintra, you can again see Moorish influences, this time at the windows of the villa.

Quinta da Amizade

After Sassetti’s death in 1910, the villa passed into different hands. Isabel Armanda Luísa Real changed the name of the villa to Quinta da Amizade, as you might have noticed on the sign at the entrance. In the end, it was the municipality of Sintra that bought the estate in 2004 and had it adapted for visitors in 2011 under the management of Parques de Sintra.

Continue to the Palácio da Pena

At the end of the garden you can walk through a door in the wall into the forest. From here you can continue your way to the Palácio da Pena or the Castelo de Mouros, both higher up the mountain. You will pass the Penedo da Amizade rock formation. This cliff is used for rock climbing with no less than 72 different routes. From here it gets more difficult to get to the top. The steps of the stairs are quite high sometimes. So make sure you wear good footwear and are fit enough before you start this walking route. Of course, you can also walk back to the village after the visit to Vila Sassetti.

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