Sintra PH30 Programme - The fauna of Sintra's Cultural Landscape up for debate

The 30th anniversary of UNESCO's classification of the Sintra Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site will be a year of celebration, with 30 initiatives over 12 months aimed especially at young people, as part of the celebrations organised by Parques de Sintra, Sintra Town Council and the Cultursintra Foundation.

Innovative, fun, challenging and digital, the SINTRA PH30 programme for young people kicks off on Saturday 11 January at 2pm with the TALK ‘Strands of the Cultural Landscape: Fauna’, at the Park and Palace of Monserrate. Already sold out, this is just the first event of a year of celebration that will bring unique activities to the Sintra parks and monuments, culminating in December 2025 with the SINTRA PH30 Festival.

In January and throughout the first quarter of 2025, the winter programme will combine outdoor activities exploring Sintra's natural landscape with proposals centred on the built heritage. Adventurous and mysterious activities that will take place outside the monuments’ normal opening hours.

Featuring open conversations dedicated to the themes of Fauna, Flora and Built Heritage between journalists and Parques de Sintra professionals, with audience participation, the TALKS events will inaugurate each season's programme. Taking place in the Music Room of Palace of Monserrate, the TALKS will be preceded by a brief musical performance on the piano in an informal atmosphere. Participants then head outdoors, visiting areas that are usually inaccessible, before a snack at the Farmyard of Monserrate, including hot bread made in the estate's wood-fired oven. The entire visit is accompanied by Parques de Sintra biologists, landscape architects and conservationists-restorers, in a celebration of the pleasure of working in Cultural and Natural Heritage and also in an attempt to attract new professionals for the future.

SINTRA PH30 offers an unusual way of discovering Sintra's history and heritage with the first HERITAGE SPORTS action: Geo-caching in Villa Sassetti, on 18 and 19 January, at a choice of six times, between 10:00 and 15:00. Open to all, Geo-caching will first take curious visitors through the National Palace of Sintra in search of the solution to the enigma of the fundamental coordinates, then on to the garden around Villa Sassetti in search of caches full of history to be learnt. On the way back to the Palace, there are prizes for the winners and traditional Sintra sweets for all the participants.

Continuing to privilege the role of the visitor in their heritage experience, the SINTRA PH30 winter programme also offers an unmissable Escape Room experience at the National Palace of Sintra on 7 and 8 February, part of the ODD HERITAGE activities. Centred on the misfortune of King Afonso VI, imprisoned for 9 years in the Palace, visitors will be invited to learn more about the History of Portugal through an emotional experience, using all their reasoning skills and teamwork. And, of course, escaping from the Palace will take place under the cover of darkness...

Finally, as part of OPEN HERITAGE, on 14, 15 and 16 February there will be four opportunities to get to know the National Palace of Sintra in various ways: hidden lives; decorative campaigns between the 15th and 19th centuries; Time and the Palace(s); and imitation techniques. Always guided by Parques de Sintra professionals – conservators, architects and historians – the OPEN HERITAGE events open up space and time to detail and thematisation, inviting you to delve into the particularities of this heritage site.

All participants in the SINTRA PH30 programme can also qualify for additional prizes if they attend 5 of the 30 activities planned for the year celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of UNESCO's classification of the Sintra Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site.

The programme can be consulted on the Sintra PH30 platform, where registration for the activities (which have limited capacity) is available for the symbolic cost of €1 per participant.

The Sintra PH30 platform also features quizzes to learn more about Sintra's heritage, as well as key clues for the activities in the field. February sees the start of the School Competition (information made available on the platform), field visits and an exhibition of finalists’s work, seeking to put technology at the service of learning for young people.

Throughout the year, the SINTRA PH30 programme will be structured around these three types of action: HERITAGE SPORTS, with Heritage Scavenger Hunts, Orienteering Competitions, Geo-caching, Mountain Biking and Hiking; ODD HERITAGE, with Escape Rooms, Murder Mysteries and Ghost Tours in some of Sintra's most emblematic monuments; and OPEN HERITAGE, with visits behind the scenes or to the open sites of ongoing conservation and restoration work.

The celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the classification of the Sintra Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO are the responsibility of Parques de Sintra, Sintra Town Council and the Cultursintra Foundation.