Follow in the footsteps of Hans Christian Andersen in Sintra

The Danish Embassy in Portugal launched an app for that purpose

The Danish Embassy in Portugal launched an audio guide app that lets visitors to Sintra rediscover the city through the eyes of 19-century writer Hans Christian Andersen. The famed author visited the Royal City in 1866 and wrote an account of that journey. Tourists and literature enthusiasts can explore the city the way Andersen did because it has changed very little since then.

With the LYDLANDKORT application, the visitor can hear the stories associated with the place where H.C. Andersen went. The phone's GPS detects one’s location and reproduces the sounds and stories associated with the place.

Almost like travelling back in time

H.C. Andersen, known for his classic children’s stories, paid a visit to Sintra some 150 years ago and finding himself fascinated with the city wrote “A visit in Portugal 1866”.

His travelogue now gets a new life in a new form, by retelling selected passages, which form part of Danish composer Hans Sydows’ soundwalk Jeg kan huske® Sintras dejlighed / Lembro-me® da beleza de Sintra / I remember® Sintras beauty, available in Danish, Portuguese and English.

This itinerary can be done on foot, from Fonte da Sabuga up the Calçada dos Clérigos towards the Church of Santa Maria and ending near the Church of São Pedro, passing by the O'Neill family house, where Hans Christian Andersen stayed as a guest.

The launch ceremony was attended by the mayor of the municipality of Sintra, Basílio Horta, the Ambassador of Denmark, Maria Nilaus Tarp, and the person responsible for the project, the composer Hans Sydow.

During the presentation, Maria Nilaus Tarp said that “Hans Christian Andersen was fascinated by the future and by the technologies of the future and would certainly be happy with this application". She also remarked on the similarity between the beauty of Sintra described by the author in the past and the one that can be observed in the present.