Initiation Well of the Quinta da Regaleira

The Quinta da Regaleira is one of the important sites within Sintra. It seems that there is some sort of palace that was built here but I would be visiting that later. For now, we were exploring the grounds of this large estate. It seems to be a delightful mix of various structures fortifications, masions, palaces and wells. We happened to be near one of these wells. There are call initiation wells. It isn’t a real well in the sence that water is actually put here but it is a well in the sense that it is deep much like a well.

From the name, initiations are performed here but it isn’t really clear how. There is a flight of stairs which leads to the bottom of the well. No doubt you would be going down the well with tens of other visitors, and it makes you wonder where they all disappear to? It was almost a magical experience to go down the well. Indeed there are quite a number of people at the bottom of the well but not because there have nowhere else to go, but because they are taking photos. There is a path from the bottom to the outside to let people out. It is quite a sight to look out to the sky from the bottom. The spiral staircase is a lovely design and you can see that there was a lot of work put into it.

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