Moorish Castle Chapel & Exhibitions - Sintra
Chapel and the Burial Grounds
The Chapel of Sao Pedro de Penaferrim sits just outside the walls of the Moorish Castle in Sintra. The chapel was built in the late 12th century. In the past, the area outside the inner walls was as a burial ground for the the Muslims and then later for the Christians.
Now, there is a glass cover placed above the burial grounds of the castle. Under the glass, a skeleton was placed inside a shallow grave to show how people had been buried there in the past. After the collection of all bones, they were brought to a mass grave and deposited there (few meters away from this site).
Items on display
The objects on display came from the Moorish Castle and then they went on display inside the chapel. Some of these items were badly fragmented but they still provide us a rare windows into the life of this castle’s inhabitants. Most of these objects were linked to 10th – 12th centuries. Some of the items found on this site were; a pitcher, a broken glass, oil lamps, ivory pieces and glazed pottery. Game marks of different shapes and sizes came from the medieval times when a Muslim community thrived there.
