Initiation Well

There are so very many eccentric and grand homes built by early 20th-century millionaires, and they draw me like honey draws a fly. The exquisite pictures here all feature just one structure in the palace complex called the Quinta da Regalreira built by Antonio Augusto Carvalho Monteiro dating to 1904 — it is the “Initiation Well”.

In fact, this 88-foot underground structure was never intended as a well, but rather to showcase the spiritual beliefs of Monteiro, who was a Freemason heavy into Tarot mysticism, the Knights Templar, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, and the Hermetic Legacy — just your average Western grab-bag of spiritualist philosophies and secret societies common for the time.

The Initiation Well has nine levels, with each set apart by fifteen steps — speculation is that these numbers may reflect Dante’s “Nine Circles of Hell,” “Nine Sections of Purgatory,” and/or “Nine Skies of Paradise”. At the base is depicted a compass with the Knights Templar symbol, which was perhaps Monteiro’s coat-of-arms. The the colannades and alcoves lining the structure (the “well” is more like an underground tower) as well as the complicated tunnel system that connects it to other parts of the Quinta da Regalreira are evocative — they suggest hidden meaning.

But mystery rites keep their power by being secret, and no written records explaining the rituals that took place in the well or the meanings behind the architecture remain. Today the entire palace is a UNESCO World Heritage site open to the public near the town of Sinta in Portugal.