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Sintra has long been known as a fairytale place of beauty and romance, nestling in an oasis of greenery on a mountain high above sea level and presenting views and weather so beautiful that countless kings, noblemen and poets have made their home there, especially in summer when Sintra's weather is particularly stunning. Poets have written reams about Sintra's beauty, especially English poet Lord Byron, who said that "The little town of Sintra is perhaps the most beautiful in the world." The great Portuguese playwright Gil Vincente called Sintra "an earthly garden of Eden sent here by Solomon for a king of Portugal." Painters have also captured Sintra's beautiful vistas in their paintings for generations. Lending further decoration to Sintra are the many palaces, churches and villas set in the hills, which reflect a combination of Moorish, Portuguese and Spanish influences. The Pal cio Nacional de Sintra is especially noted, with its beautiful mix of Moorish and Gothic architecture set like a jewel in the center of the old town. The Pal cio used to be a summer home for the Portuguese royal House of Avis, but today it is a museum open to the public. Another famous Sintra sight is Pena Castle, built in Gothic style high on a hill and looking much like a fairytale castle. The palace is surrounded by a beautiful park filled with a variety of trees and flowers brought from every corner of the Portuguese empire by Dom Fernando in the 1840's. An odder Sintra site is the Convento dos Capuchos, a tiny 16th century hermitage in the forest with cells hewn from rock and lined with cork. In fact, Sintra is so filled with historical sites that in 1995, UNESCO approved the classification of Sintra as World Heritage, under the "Cultural Landscape" category for its areas of great historical and artistic interest, noting the National Palace of Sintra and the Palaces of Pena and Monserrate as particularly valuable.