High Cross
Summit stone cross on granite boulders at the hills' highest point, with views to the Atlantic.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to High Cross, the summit of the Sintra hills in Portugal, is about weather and stone: five centuries of crosses planted on an exposed granite peak facing the Atlantic. It reaches back to King João the Third around fifteen twenty-two and to King Ferdinand the Second in the nineteenth century. You will hear why the peak draws its summer mist, and what the iron clamps were for. Best heard standing among the granite boulders at the foot of the cross.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Sanctuary of Peninha
Hilltop baroque chapel and unfinished Romantic mansion with sweeping Atlantic coastline views.
Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais
Protected granite mountains and misty forests running west to the Atlantic cliffs and dunes.
Pena Park
Romantic hillside forest of exotic trees, fern valleys, lakes and hidden follies around a palace.
Cape Roca
Windswept granite headland with sheer sea cliffs and an old lighthouse at Europe's western edge.
Capuchos Convent
Austere sixteenth-century friary tucked among granite boulders, its tiny cells lined with cork.
National Palace of Pena
Romantic hilltop palace in red and yellow, built over a ruined monastery with sweeping views.