Nov 5 Lisbon, Portugal

November 5 was our last full day in Lisbon. We bordered a bus in the am. Our first stop was at the Jeronimos Monastery.  The first image shows George and Ann in front of it. 

The second image (from Wikipedia) shows the extent of the structure.

The third image (also from wikipedia) shows the Manueline architecture (design art on the structural elements) of the main entrance of the monastery.

This monastery was built to house an order of monks (the Jeronimos) whose job was to pray for the soul of the King. 

There was also an order of monks who prayed for seafarers (the front of the Monastery faces the Bay that holds the Tagus River estuary). This function preexisted the monastery and monks who did this were also housed in the monastery after it was constructed.  Thus it is that Vasco de Gama (who discovered the all sea route from Portugal to India in 1499) is entombed in the Monastery (image four from wikipedia).

The construction took about 100 years after being inaugurated by Manual I in about 1501.  Of course since there is now no monarchy and no public support for monastic orders, most of this huge building is empty. It does however, house a maritime museum and archeology museum (we didn't go to either). 

Across from the monastery, there is a public park. It has several image worthy statues and buildings. 

The fifth image shows Ann and Beth in front of a statue which is a replica of the plane flown by Gago Coutinho in 1922 which crossed the Atlantic from Lisbon, Portugal to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  

It took several weeks as they made stops at various islands off the coast of Africa and the coast of Brazil. It then took several stops to get to Rio de Janeiro (see image six from wikipedia). 

The monument was erected in 1991. 



Near the airplane monument, Beth and some others are standing in front of the Belem Tower which was constructed during the reign of Manuel I (note the Manueline architecture in this seventh image). It is also called the Tower of Saint Vincent (Vincent is the patron saint of Lisbon). The rectangle fort around the tower was built in the 1570s.  

The idea for a fort may have been good but in  1580, the fort was surrounded by the Spanish in their conquest of the peninsula.  The fort surrendered after a battle lasting only a few hours.

The Belem Tower was built on an outcropping of basalt. The tower was heavy enough that over the years it became, at least to an extent, interlocked with the bedrock and probably that is part of the reason why it withstood the earthquake of 1755 (seismic resilience is complicated). However, the local guide said it withstood the earthquake because it was built on sand. The sand in the Tagus estuary may have dissipated some of the energy in some of the seismic waves but this is uncertain given that we have only indirect evidence of the event.

Near the Belem Tower is the monument to the navigators (or monument to the discoveries which in Portuguese is Padrão dos Descobrimentos). George and Beth are standing in the foreground in this eighth image.  This monument was constructed of wood in 1940 and demolished in 1943. It was later reconstructed in concrete and limestone in 1960. 

Of interest in this is the 30+ figures on the monument. They are seen in images 9 and 10 from wikipedia. 

The Portuguese discoveries required some important navigation tools. For example the compass (earliest versions of this are from China), the astrolabe (continuously improved since roman times - an astrolabe is shown in this 11th image which is from gothereguide.com) which shows the angle of a star or planet to the horizon, and navigation tables which show what angle stars or planets will be at various times depending on the longitude. The image also shows the wavy mosaic tiles around the monument - similar to those at Rossio Plaza) 

Some of the best navigation tables of the later 15th century were done by Abraham Zacuto (who came to Portugal from Spain in 1492 and, notwithstanding his Jewish religion, was appointed to a royal navigation position). Zacuto's tables (published in 1496, just before the edict of Portuguese expulsion) were used by de Gama on his 1497-99 journey to India.

We drove by Commercial square (in Portuguese the Praca do Comercio). It has a statute of Joseph I in front of a nice arch surrounded by buildings with arch supported offices (12th image from lisbon-portugal-guide.com). The whole thing was built following the earthquake which destroyed some royal buildings at this site. Joseph I, a.k.a., Joseph Emmanuel, is the monarch of the post earthquake reconstruction. The statue was dedicated in 1775, twenty years after the earthquake. The plaza around the statue is Lisbon's largest plaza.

Images 13, 14 and 15 are at the plaza at the end of the avenue of liberty. 




Image 13 shows pavement markings describing the massacre of Jews on 19 April 1506 (it continued on 20 April) but the people killed were actually mostly converts to Christianity who were suspected of keeping Jewish customs or not accepting Catholic doctrine. Others were killed because they were disliked by their neighbors and in the environment, a convincing accusation would allow murder by mob (about 2000 people died in this massacre; elsewhere I describe it as a progrom).


Image 14 shows George in front of the 6 pointed star marker as our tour manager explains some of the story behind it. 

Image 15 shows the church behind the commemorative marker. This is the church of Saint Dominic or maybe it would be called the church of the Dominicans (Igreja de São Domingos). Some of the officials of the church, which housed the convent of the Dominicans (Convento de São Domingos de Lisboa), were instigators and/or enthusiasts of the massacre.  

Manuel I who was then King of Portugal had (per the majority view) the church closed for eight years (this is disputed by some historians who say it was only two years) following the massacre and had some officials hung for their part in the massacre. Other officials with less involvement were imprisoned for as little as a few days.  Also, Manuel I allowed emigration of New Christians for some years after the massacre (I was unable to determine how many). 

The church was heavily damaged by the 1755 earthquake (our local guide said that it had not been damaged in that event).  The church was restored in 1807 but heavily damaged again by a fire in 1959 and subsequently restored and reopened in 1994.

 


Image 16 shows something I really liked about Portugal.  It shows a draft beer purchased at a Burger King (it was about the same price as a Coke).  I purchased it at an upscale shopping mall while Ann and Beth were buying some souvenirs. The brand they had there was Super Bock which is apparently the most popular beer in Portugal (and is made in Portugal).  You can see the remains of a hard boiled egg (which was lunch) near the beer.