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!

The impressive exterior

  

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.

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 !!

  

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