From high on the granite ridgeline above Sintra, the crenellated towers of the Castelo dos Mouros — a Moorish hilltop fortress begun in the 8th century — sweep dramatically across a real-photo image while the terracotta rooftops of the village and the fairy-tale turrets of the Palácio da Pena spill down the valley below, all rendered in the rich silver-gelatin tones that defined RPPC travel cards of the 1930s. Photo credit "Cliché Alvaro Torres" appears in the lower right — Torres was a Lisbon-based commercial photographer whose sharp aerial-perspective images documented Portugal's monuments during the Estado Novo era. The card was mailed on 8 July 1935 from Lisbon (postmark: S. Sebastião da Pedreira) to Miss N.E. Day at 714 James Street, Syracuse, New York, U.S.A., bearing a pair of Portugal 50-centavo Lusíadas stamps. The message, written in blue ink in a flowing hand, mentions Portugal and Cintra enthusiastically — the writer, whose initials appear to be A.C.S., describes the post magnificently and notes the palace and fortress, calling it "wonderfully beautiful."