Below is an edited excerpt from ongoing conversations between myself and Miguel. These exchanges helped us get to know one another, understand our respective fields, and explore how we might best collaborate.

Miguel: Places, People and the Past in the Hearts of the Present: The Enchantment of the Sintra Mountains in Shaping Our Path in Life

Miguel: History has the ability to spark people’s imagination. However, leading the human mind to ignite its strongest feelings and gentlest emotions requires more than stirring the imagination: it requires opening the chest and touching the heart.

The places and people of the past hold that power, for they have the ability to give us perspective on our own lives, prompting us to reflect on what may exist beyond what we experience in this life.

Sintra carries through time a mystical mist that both delights the light-hearted with its legends and draws those who live in introspection into a deep fascination with what life truly is.

Miguel:  Yes, I was born in Lisbon in 1978 and grew up in one of the 1700’s houses rebuilt after the great earthquake of 1755, in downtown Lisbon. During my teenage years, I moved to the municipality of Sintra, where I spent solitary days and nights in the heart of the Mountains. It was then that I began my first research into the History of Sintra.

Miguel: I exchanged university studies in Psychology for lived human experience and immersion in the History and characters of the past, adopting the pseudonym “O Caminheiro de Sintra” – “Sintra’s Wanderer”. From that moment on, I dedicated myself exclusively to historical research on the Sintra Mountains.

Miguel: In 2011, I published my first (fiction) book, “Contos de Sintra” (“Tales From Sintra”), republished in 2025 by Zéfiro. In 2013, through my own scripts and research, I began leading a series of themed routes, walking tours and guided visits, first at the invitation of Casa do Fauno, later through other cultural and tourism institutions, and from 2014 onwards independently.

In 2014, I published with Zéfiro the book “Sintra Lendária – Histórias e Lendas do Monte da Lua” – “Legendary Sintra – Stories and Legends of the Mountain of the Moon” (currently in its 7th edition), in which, for the first time, I revealed what the former building of Quinta da Regaleira looked like, as well as the true design of the Carvalho Monteiro palace that was being built at Peninha, among many other previously unknown curiosities.

In 2025, after several years devoted to writing a new work on magic and superstition in Sintra’s past, I published with Zéfiro the book “Fantasmas da História de Sintra” – “Ghosts of the History of Sintra – From Chronicles to Mysteries: Magic in the Ancient Legends of the Mountains”.

Miguel: In 2015 – at the invitation of the multinational J. W. Thompson – I served as content consultant in the creation of the Interactive Centre of Myths and Legends of Sintra (Turismo de Portugal / Sintra Municipal Council).

Also in 2015, I began collaborating with the historic Jornal de Sintra (for which José Pedro Machado and Agostinho da Silva, among many other notable cultural figures, also wrote in the past), contributing monthly articles on the Legendary History of Sintra for nearly ten years.

Miguel: Since 2016, I have visited around 20 schools per year in the Municipality of Sintra to speak to students about the History and Legends of Sintra (a project supported by the Sintra Municipal Council).

Over the years, “O Caminheiro de Sintra” has also participated in various cultural projects and created others to promote the legendary History of Sintra, including a digital magazine and podcasts.

In 2025, at the invitation of New York-based composers Pedro H. da Silva and Lucía Caruso, I wrote a series of poems – based on one of the legends from the book “Sintra Lendária” – to be sung by soprano Larisa Martinez (wife of violinist Joshua Bell).