Thursday, June 9, 2016

A little Lisbon historry

After a much more comfortable Mass in the hotel conference room and a nice breakfast, we boarded our bus for a survey of Lisbon. We saw the Monument of the Navigators and the Tower of Belem ... Portugal was much involved in the Age of Exploration.

 There is a wold map in stone at the base of  the monument.


Entering the tower ... it has a chapel at the top and a dungeon below!


We also visited the beautiful former Jeronimo Monastery (St. Jerome) ... the building is not only a magnificent piece of architecture, but also a grand tribute to religious life itself! How amazing it must have been when filled with monks in the service of God!
Beautiful cloister walks!


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The impressive exterior

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We drove to a nearby town named Sintra, where the Portuguese Kings used to live ... visiting the royal palace as well as the castle on the hill.


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We made the stop at the western -most point of Europe ... VERY windy there!






On the return to our hotel we stopped at St. Roch Church ... a magnificent building of the Jesuits. There is an upright English martyr buried under the pulpit, honoring his preaching against the Protestants; also a magnificent side chapel all mosaics ... it was designed and built in Rome, Then disassembled and shipped to Lisbon !!

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We returned to the hotel for dinner ... and for some, a game or two of pinochle, of course!



1 comment:

  1. I hope someone gave "our benefactor" the address to the blog so they can follow along. :)
    SMPRO

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