About Cascata de Pisoes and Well of Initiation Waterfall
Cascata de Pisoes (or Cascata dos Pisões with the plural definite article conjunction) is really an incidental roadside attraction along the well-trafficked N375 Road between Sintra Centro and the Quinta da Regaleira.
This was really my excuse to talk about the Quinta da Regaleira, which was park that featured a gothic mansion as well as some other intriguing attractions strewn about its complex.
Among its attractions include the well-photographed Well of Initiation (Poço Iniciático), the Regaleira Tower, and a network of caves with an artificial waterfall.
Like with the Beckford’s Waterfall in Monserrate, this was merely a backdrop to another attraction (namely the Quinta da Regaleira) as opposed to a main attraction itself.
More specifically, we encountered the Cascata de Pisões while walking 1km along the N375 road to access the Quinta da Regaleira from the Sintra Centro (it was another 400m from the falls to the entrance of the quinta).
The public falls itself was probably roughly 3m in height, but it basically acted like a fountain as it was surrounded by overgrowth and fountain-like walls and basins making the falls appear even less impressive.
It’s not clear to me if this was an artificial waterfall or not, but it seems to drain some ponds or lakes resident within the Biester Park and Palace (another paid attraction in the Sintra area) so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.
In any case, since the Quinta da Regaleira would cause most visitors to pay attention to the Cascata de Pisões, it’s worth talking about its attractions as well.
So after paying to get into the Quinta da Regaleira, we pretty much made a beeline to go right from the spiral Well of Initiation, which is a famous Instagram photo spot.
After queueing to experience this spot (the queue was around 15-20 minutes for us), we then slowly made our way down the well and into an underground cave system (which I’m sure was enhanced over the years) that provided relief from the heat.
The long corridors actually led towards some other side wells, but one of the spurs went to the base of another waterfall dropping right outside a couple of other cave openings.
Of the waterfalls featured on this page, I’d have to say that this was the most impressive one even though I have a feeling that it was artificial.
Once we emerged from the cave, we were then free to check out some of the other parts of the Quinta da Regaleira, and this included the very narrow Regaleira Tower (yielding an unusual view of Pena Palace) and the gothic mansion near the exit.
Overall, we spent about 90 minutes though if you were just here to check out the waterfalls (probably not a good reason if that’s all you’re going to do), then this visit could easily take way less time than that.
Authorities
Cascata de Pisões sits in the town center of Sintra in the Lisbon Region of Portugal. Although the waterfall itself is public, the Quinta da Regaleira (perhaps the reason why you’d even notice the Cascata de Pisões in the first place) is administered by Fundação Cultursintra FP (or Cultursintra Foundation). For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Quinta da Regaleira website.
Cascata de Pisões resides near the Quinta da Regaleira near the heart of well-touristed town of Sintra.
Generally, I wouldn’t recommend driving once you’re in the Sintra Centro area, but if you do happen to self-drive here (like we did), then it’s best to seek out public parking near the train station or at an accommodation that has parking.
The latter was the case for us since we stayed at the NH Sintra Centro right next to the National Palace of Sintra.
But as far as driving here, it’s best to just use an app like GoogleMaps to route from where you’re at to the Sintra P3 Car Park, which is next to both a shopping center as well as nearby the Sintra train station and bus stop.
Once there, you can walk around 10-15 minutes uphill to the Sintra Centro area where the National Palace of Sintra is at, or you can take a bus or shuttle to take out that leg work (though you may have to wait a bit due to the bus schedules).
Then, once in Sintra Centro, you just walk west along the N375 road to get to both the Cascata de Pisões (after about 1km) as well as the entrance to the Quinta da Regaleira (another 400m further).
For context, Sintra is about 29km (about 30 minutes drive) northwest of Lisbon, about 18km (under 30 minutes drive) north of Cascais, 330km (over 3 hours drive) south of Porto, and 320km (over 3 hours drive) north of Lagos.
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Just a short video checking out the viewing area of this waterfall and the street passing before it
Checking out the waterfall beneath the Well of Initiation from a couple of different positions
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