The Knights Templar Holds Ties to Portuguese Structure (S4) - The UnXplained Zone

Sintra, Portugal. This popular tourist destination is known for its pristine beaches, historic gardens and numerous palatial estates. One of those estates is named Quinta da Reguleira. This gothic palace has been unoccupied for more than 30 years, and it has a reputation for being a mysterious, eerie place. Reguleira is really the spooky mansion on the hill. But when you get up closer, it immediately seizes your imagination and draws you in. And you begin to appreciate the secrets that it holds, compared to the other more glitzy palaces nearby. According to historical records, Quinta da Reguleira is an ancient estate that dates back nearly a thousand years. And it was bought in the late 19th century by an eccentric Portuguese businessman named Carvalho Monteiro, who reportedly had a fascination with the occult. Monteiro was a multimillionaire, and he embraced all manner of mystical philosophies and traditions. And so he invested an awful lot of his wealth at Quinta. He enhanced the property to add symbolism. There are statues and inscriptions and carvings that are connected with Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, and occultists of various descriptions. Monteiro basically adapted the property into this extraordinary sort of theme park to the occult. People thought it was odd, but to a serious occultist, if you've got the money, you're going to go for it. And that's exactly what he did. Each year, thousands of tourists visit Quinta da Reguleira to walk through the palace and gardens. But what attracts the most attention is a curious underground structure known as the Initiation Well. The Initiation Well is like some kind of gothic fantasy. It's called the Initiation Well, but it's not a well. It's like an inverted tower that's going 90 foot deep into the ground, and your senses are completely confused by the sight of this. When you enter, you're looking down at this shaft with the spiral staircase full of niches going clockwise down at this corkscrew deep into the earth, and you become very aware that you're passing through into a completely new level of reality. You almost have a spiritual moment, like a revelation. The Initiation Well is the most elaborate creation in Monteiro's sprawling monument to the occult. However, some historians believe that Monteiro was not the original architect of the well. They claim that he merely refurbished it and that this structure was first built in the Middle Ages by the Knights Templar, who were a secretive group of Christian warrior monks. It's highly likely that the Templars were responsible for the well. The Templars were the first deed holders of the property that became Reguleira many centuries later, and they were definitely working on this property in the 12th century. Another piece of evidence which suggests that the Knights Templar built the Initiation Well is the fact that there is a network of underground tunnels that extend out from it. At the bottom of the well, you suddenly find yourself in this labyrinth of tunnels which go every single direction. Some of the tunnels extend deep into the mountain to the point where you could come up underneath a chapel or a convent in the hilltop five miles away. The whole place is honeycombed with tunnels. So there's plenty of evidence for the Templars being there. And Monteiro was effectively buying a chunk of real estate right on top of where the Templars had been. There's no accident in this. He's then recreating what he thinks the Templars stood for. It's believed that Monteiro may have been looking for something the Knights Templar have left behind in those many tunnels that were underneath, which may have included the Holy Grail. According to Christian tradition, the Holy Grail was the chalice that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. The Knights Templar were known to have searched for important religious artifacts while in the Holy Land during the Crusades. And there is evidence to suggest that if they did find the Holy Grail, they may have brought it to Portugal. One of the big clues that we know that the Templars left something of incredible importance there lies in the seal that was printed by the first king of Portugal in a deed that he gave to the Templars. And if you look very carefully at the seal that the king put on there, it has the word Portugal written as an anagram. It reads Porto o Grau, which means through you, the Grail. What the king of Portugal is insinuating is that the Templars brought the Grail to Portugal. So when the Templars are bringing their treasure out of Jerusalem, they could have brought the Grail to Regaleira. They had fortresses and they had secret tunnels. They could get their treasure there and it would be protected. If you look around Regaleira, you'll see evidence for the Grail. We have rather intriguingly a bench referred to as bench 515. At the center of it is a female character and she's holding out a chalice and that's believed to represent the Holy Grail. Was the Holy Grail hidden somewhere in the initiation well? And if so, did Montero find it there? We'll never know for sure because Montero died in 1920 and took the secrets of the initiation well to the grave. You come away from Regaleira, there's no doubt it's the initiation well that plays on your mind. It's so odd that so much effort went into creating this and yet what does it all mean? And that's what is the big unanswered question.