Christie projectors sit at the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage site, Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra, Portugal, illuminating the estate’s landscape.
The project features 12 Christie HS series laser projectors to illuminate the estate’s facades, trees, and lakes with imagery inspired by classical literature and the search for self-knowledge.
The projectors create a transformative experience for one of Portugal’s most famous landmarks, creating a dynamic display of light, sound, and movement by blending dance, video mapping, and storytelling. The experience guides audiences through a series of projected scenes that reinterpreted passages from two literary epics: Virgil’s Aeneid and Camões’ Os Lusíadas.
Four DWU23-HS and eight D20WU-HS projectors were used in multiple areas across the site, with the units installed throughout the gardens and near architectural elements, carefully integrated into the natural surroundings. All projectors were housed in custom weatherproof enclosures, camouflaged among vegetation to preserve the visual harmony of the location. The system was implemented with support from Christie’s partner, Total AV.
The mapped areas ranged from four to 40 metres in width and four to 16 metres in heigh, covering a range of materials including stone facades, arches, towers, vegetation, rocks, and water surfaces.
Each projection required customised warping and brightness adjustments to ensure consistency across irregular and reflective surfaces.
The content was rendered and optimised for each mapped area to maintain pixel accuracy and visual coherence across all projection surfaces within Quinta da Regaleira.
The projections were powered at native WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution, with multi-projector blends reaching up to 3840 x 1200 pixels, depending on the setup. For one of the main palace facades, two 23,000 lumen projectors were overlapped to deliver a combined brightness of 46,000 lumens.
Synchronising multiple projection points proved to be a challenge when distributed across such a large and complex site, requiring precise control to deliver cohesive transitions and consistent timing between projection areas. Outdoor operation also presented additional challenges, including humidity and temperature fluctuations as well as the dense vegetation and uneven terrain of the heritage site. All units were installed inside ventilated housings that protected them from environmental factors, while maintaining stable thermal conditions. Regular monitoring and maintenance also allowed continuous performance throughout the two-month exhibition.