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Mature Flâneur
The Palace of the Seven Sighs
A walk in the mist through Portugal’s palace paradise.
Teresa (my beloved Portuguese spouse) has always dreamed of staying in the Palace of the Seven Sighs — Seteais, in Portuguese. According to legend, a Moorish princess was cursed to die when she uttered her seventh sigh…Throughout her young life, she managed only five until, seduced by a Portuguese knight, she gave her sixth sigh, and then when her Arab fiancé found her, she uttered her fatal seventh. Although…the name could also have originated from the rye crop, centeio, which was once grown in the region — if one had the effrontery to believe such a prosaic origin for such a romantic place.
When we last came to Sintra two years ago, Teresa and I drove right up to the palace doors and knocked. But the staff would not even let us in for a look around. They said the palace was closed for a private event. I mused aloud that more likely, it was because Teresa came from peasant stock, not royalty. Her side-eye cut me like a knife. Sometimes, I think it is a wonder I am still alive.
Thus, on our return to Portugal in 2025, it was inevitable Teresa would book us, if only for a night, in this historic palace in the verdant hills of Sintra. Sintra is a small town just west of Lisbon nestled in a microclimate…
