November 22 – December 1, 2022
Taking the metro was easy and cheap from Quelez. I hopped on and rode it to Rossio – the end of the line.
The first thing I saw as I exited the station was St. Jorge Castle, high on the hill, overlooking Lisbon. Well, it’s hard to say no to that, isn’t it? So off I headed in that direction. Well, not so fast….
I had to cross Rossio Square and there was a Christmas market set up. There was hot mulled wine for sale. It was weak wine, which is good because the mosaic pattern of the square already had an optical illusion of being wavy and drunk.
Further along, was Praca da Figueira and its huge bronze statue of King John I. He sat as king from 1385 to 1433 and is recognized for his role in Portugal’s victory in the war of succession with Castile and in preserving Portugal’s independence. He was lovingly referred to as “the Good” or “the Great” in Portugal, but “the Bastard” in Spain. He also saw the beginning of the great overseas expansion of Portugal.
The thing to remember about Lisbon is it is very hilly. It feels like you are walking uphill all the time. The old saying about walking uphill in both directions starts to make sense. St. Jorge Castle is 97 meters (318 ft) above the rest of Lisbon.
I have a walking app called GPSMyCity that basically takes you to all the places that the Hop-on Hop-off buses and guided walking tours do. It gives you a GPS route and tells you how many sites you will see and how far the route is. Each stop has a brief description of the site it takes you to. Brilliant!
The point of that app promotion was to say this: The route to St. Jorge Castle took me past a lot of other historical sites. One in particular was the Lisbon Cathedral. The architecture of old European churches always has me gobsmacked. The stone arches, the stained glass windows, the ceiling murals. How on earth did they build such beautiful structures, that are still standing, with no real blue-print to go by? Where do you start? Where do you lay the first stone? While in back home, a building that is more than 50 years old is considered unsafe and is torn down? As with most churches in Portugal and Spain, they are heavily decorated with gold – that was stolen from South America.
This church had a monstrance which stands 94 cm (37 inches) high, made of 17 kg (37.5 lbs) of gold and is decorated with 4120 precious stones. At today’s prices, the gold alone is worth over a million dollars.
As I mentioned, Lisbon is one big hill, with little side streets that go up and up and up and then goes around a corner and suddenly you are walking beside a beautiful cathedral, that just happens to be the Lisbon Cathedral. The same one you just visited, but now it looks different because you have come at it from a different angle. And you wonder how you could have walked UP so many streets and steps and still manage to go DOWN at the Cathedral again. ???? This may seem hilarious, but it happened four times! Every time it looked like a different church because I came at it from a different angle. Point of the story: pay attention to the GPS.
I finally made it up to St. Jorge Castle. There is evidence of human occupation here as early as the 8th century BC. The first fortifications were built in the 1st century BC. It was occupied by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, and Moors before the Portuguese took hold in 1147. It has served as a royal palace, military barracks and home to the National Archives. It is an impressive national monument and museum.
I walked along the old walls, down into the courtyards, through various passageways and along the rampart with its commanding view of Lisbon and the harbour. The resident peacocks wandered nearby.
From St. Jorge’s Castle, I made my way down to Praca Do Comercio, a huge harbour-facing plaza. I’m not sure when it was first built but it was remodeled after the 1755 earthquake. At its center stands a huge statue of King Jose I, whose reign saw the Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal. I sat on the steps of the monument and ate my sandwich.
The square is also the location of the assassination of Carlos I, the last king of Portugal, and his son. The square is surrounded on three sides by beautiful government, customs and port activity buildings, some of which now house upscale restaurants and shops. The building opposite the harbour has a grand arch called Arco da Rua Augusta that leads back to Rossio Square and the metro home.
I took the bus to Jeronimo’s Monastery and Santa Maria de Belem Church. Erected in the early 1500s, and taking 100 years to build, it replaced an existing church where monks of the military-religious Order of Christ provided assistance to seafarers. The cloisters cover two levels with massive archways and ornate carvings.
The church is dark due to its few windows that are meters high. The stone columns add to the sense of height. There were two very impressive tombs in the church.
From the monastery, it is a very short walk to Belem Tower. It is a 16th-century fortification that served as a point of embarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. It is an impressive 30-metre (98 ft) four-story limestone tower. The tower was built on a small island in the middle of the Tagus River, however after the 1755 earthquake the river got redirected and it now sits on the shore. It served as a fortress, dungeon, customs house and summer retreat for the king, which explains why it has a beautiful balcony and ornate bastion terrace.
As I exited the tower a young girl was playing the violin in the square. She was playing “What a Wonderful World”. I had to pause and take it in. The ancient tower was behind her, the sky was cloudy but warm. People were lazily milling about. And I could not help but think, it truly is a wonderful world. It was magical.
A short walk further along the shore brought me to the Monument of the Discoveries which celebrates the Portuguese age of exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries. It stands 52 metres (171 ft) high and is shaped like the prow of a ship. On either side are 16 figures representing the great people of the time – monarchs, explorers, cartographers, artists, scientists and missionaries. Henry the Navigator stands at the head, making the total number of figures represented 33. Henry was the 4th child of King John I. He was responsible for the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade through the systematic exploration of West Africa, Atlantic islands and searching for new routes.
I took the elevator to the top to look down on the 50-metre (160 ft) Rosa-dos Ventos (compass rose). It is made of different types of limestone – one of which is a very rare type found only in Sintra. The centre is 14 metres wide and has a map showing the routes of the Portuguese explorers.
I took a tram back to Rossio Square. All of a sudden the smell of smoke entered the cabin. The tram stopped. The driver was yelling something in Portuguese. Everyone started exiting – fast! There was no need to translate – get the hell out! I don’t know what happened. The locals didn’t seem too bothered. They wandered off to find another mode of transportation. There was a nice-looking restaurant across the street, so I opted to have dinner out, which turned out very well. I had a delicious salmon steak with baby potatoes and broccoli. The appetizer was sardine spread (Lisbon loves their sardines) on bread and a bowl of olives. It was all washed down with a beer. When dinner was done, a new tram was across the street and ready to take me back to Rossio Square.
Another day I went to the Military Museum. It’s not exactly what I would normally jump up and down with excitement about, but it turned out to be a very entertaining and educational experience. It took me past the same Lisbon Cathedral – and it looked different yet again.
The Military Museum is located on the site of a 16th-century shipyard. It is richly Baroque and I thought it was an old palace. It had tiles portraying battle scenes and beautiful paintings. The receptionist said it was built to look like an old palace, but was definitely built to be a museum.
The first room had a cannon built in 1533 and weighs 103,500 kgs (228,000 lbs)!! It was MASSIVE!! Further along in the museum, I saw the cart that carried this beast.
The museum had a series of decorated rooms that had exhibits containing medals, guns, swords, shields, helmets, and mini replicas of cannons and other military equipment. One thing that amazed me was the ornate detail on ancient flintlock guns. They were mini works of art. There was a lot of interesting stuff to see and learn about. More than I had anticipated and I went away very impressed.
As I was leaving the Military Museum I chuckled as I saw the Lisbon Cathedral, yet again. This time I noticed that the huge dome, which I thought was part of the Cathedral, was actually a different building. Well, I had to check it out. It was the National Pantheon.
Originally a 17th-century church, construction was abandoned until the 20th century and was converted into the National Pantheon in which important Portuguese people are buried. It still has the high domed ceiling, mosaic floor, and organ. I went up into the dome, similar to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. From there I went further up to a huge terrace that circled the dome from the outside. The view was incredible and almost romantic.
I decided to spend some time in Sintra.
An Old Lady with a Backpack 
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