Enigmatic estate in Sintra featuring an inverted tower (Initiation Well) descending nine levels via a spiral staircase, whose dimensions and design closely resemble historical descriptions of the original Money Pit on Oak Island.
About This Site
Quinta da Regaleira is a palatial estate in the town of Sintra, approximately twenty miles west of Lisbon. The town was captured in 1154 by Portugal's first king, Afonso Henriques, and turned over to the Knights Templar, who held it as a stronghold for centuries. In 1904 the estate was purchased by Antonio Augusto de Carvalho Monteiro, a wealthy Freemason believed to have held secret Masonic and Templar rituals on the grounds. The most striking feature of the estate is the Initiation Well, a thirteen-foot-diameter inverted tower that descends through nine platforms connected by a spiral staircase carved into the rock. A tunnel leads from the base of the well to the estate's exterior grounds. The well's design draws on Masonic and Templar symbolism, with the nine levels representing stages of initiation corresponding to Dante's nine circles.
Connection to Oak Island
In Season 9, the team visited Quinta da Regaleira during their Portuguese research trip with Corjan Mol and Joao Fiandeiro. The group descended the Initiation Well, and the parallels to the Oak Island Money Pit were immediately apparent: a vertical shaft with a spiral design, multiple platform levels, and a tunnel leading outward from the base. Doug Crowell noted that the Restall family, who searched Oak Island in the 1960s, believed a spiral tunnel wrapped around the Money Pit, much like the staircase in the well.
At the bottom of the shaft, Corjan pointed out an oak tree branch hanging directly over the opening, echoing the account of how the Money Pit was first discovered in 1795 when Daniel McGinnis noticed a depression in the ground beneath an oak tree with a tackle block hanging from one of its branches. The combination of the spiral design, the tunnel at the base, and the oak tree above created a striking architectural echo of the Money Pit's described features, suggesting the builders of both structures may have drawn on the same Masonic and Templar traditions.
Fieldwork Notes
Visited during Season 9 by Rick Lagina, Doug Crowell, Alex Lagina, Peter Fornetti, Corjan Mol, and Joao Fiandeiro. The team descended all nine levels of the Initiation Well, documented the spiral staircase and base tunnel resembling Money Pit descriptions, and noted the oak tree branch directly over the shaft opening mirroring the 1795 discovery account.
