LISBON
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LISBON
cape now known as Cape St. Vincent, and there they
remained until D. Alfonso Henriques had expelled the
Moors from Lisbon, when they were brought from
Cape Saint Vincent and deposited in the cathedral he
had just built. At this same time Alfonso began the
building of the Cistercian monastery of Alcobaca, in
fulfilment of a vow he had made to build a monastery
for St. Bernard's monks, if he were successful in his
war against the Moors. The Castello of S. Jorqe was
built in the time of Julius Caesar, and strengthened by
the Moors, who held out there against the assault of
Alfonso Henriques. It had three towers, known as
Ulysses^ Albarram, and Managem, but every trace of
them disappeared in the earthquake of 1755. It was
the royal residence until the Spanish kings of Portugal
chose the famous Paco do Terriero which was ruined
in 1755. Don Joflo I made St. George its patron
saint; he had married an English princess^ Philippa,
daughter of John of Gaunt. The procession on the
feast of Corpus Christi from the Castello to the church
of S. Domingo was a brilliant one in former years. St.
George, lance in hand and on horseback in heavy ar-
mour, was personated by one of the faithful and his
standard was borne before him by another rider. King
and court all took part in this procession, the patri-
arch carrying the sacred Host.
The Modern City. — ^The church of St. Roque looks onto a square of its own name; it contains the chapel of St. John the Baptist, built in Rome from designs oy the architect Vaneteli. Its costly marbles and mo- saic reproductions of paintings by Guido Reni, Ra- phael, and Michelangelo took ten years to complete. Close by is the Casa de Unisencordia^ a hospital and an orphanage. Near at hand is the Graca church and convent (now a barracks) facing the city. The church contains a remarkable crucifix known as Nosser Senhor dos Passos da Graca. The church of the Carmo, a beautiful relic of Portuguese Gothic, is now a museum. Belem, a suburb of Lisbon, contains the church and monastery of Santa Maria, known locally as the Jero- nymos. The old name of Belem was Restello, and it was from here that Vasco da Gama set out to discover a sea route to India. A chapel had been built on the spot by Prince Henry the Navigator, and to it king and court went in procession, 8 July. 1497. On that same day Vasco da Gama embarked; he returned in September, 1499, having rounded the Cape of Good Hope. To immortalize the event King Manuel built a monastery near Prince Henry's chapel, changed the name of the locality from Restello to Belem or Beth- lehem, and gave the new building to the monks of St. Jerome; hence the name Jeron^inos. The first stone was laid in 1500. The building is of white stone from the quarries of Estramadura, and the foundations were laid on piles of pine wood. The style of architec- ture is pure Manuelme (a mixture of Gothic, Renais- sance, and Moorish) and the doorway is exuberantly decorated . The church is fast becoming a mausoleum of celebrated men. It contains the tombs of Vasco da Gama, of Camoes, the great poet, and of Almeida Garrett, the chief Portuguese poet of the nineteenth century. In the chapter house of the monaster^' is the tomb of Alexundro Herculano, greatest of Portuguese historians. The columned arches of the cloisters are decorated with the twisted cable moulding so common in Manueline buildings. High above Belem stands the Ajuda Palace, built early in the nineteenth centur>' to replace the royal palace which had been destroyed by the earthquake of 1755. It is a conspicuous edifice and is one of the first seen on entering the port of Lis- bon. The actual residence of the royal family is the Palace of the Necessidades. Since 18.'i4 the Cort«8, a generic designation for the Constitutional Chambers of peers and deputies, occupies the monastery of San Bento. The actual number of deputies is 148, elected by the people, whereas the chamber of peers consists 01 nominated memlxjrs appointed by the crown, and
none of them under 40 years of age. One of the most
remarkable monuments connected with the city is the
Aqueducto das Aguas Livras (built in 1713), whidi
reaches a distance of ten miles to Chellos.
Near the Estrella Gardens is a Protestant cemetery containing the tomb of Henry Fielding, the En^ish novelist, who died in Lisbon in 1754. Thispart of the city also contains the Basilica of the SS. CorScao de Jesus with its commanding cupola of white marble. The old Franciscan convent has been turned into a museum of fine arts; and a portion of the building contains the National Library of Lisbon, where are stored about 300,000 volumes, besides many rare nianuscripts. The first book printed by Guttenberg is shown there, and a Bible from the same press. It also contains books from the Duke of Northumber- land's library brought to Lisbon when the nuns of Sion were dnven out of England during the Reforma- tion. The largest church in Lisbon is S. Domingo in the Pra^a do Rocio. It was dedicated in 1241 , and has undergone many changes. The kings of Portugal are usually married there, and it was the former church <^ the Inquisition. In 1761 it witnessed the auto dafi of Father Malagrida the Jesuit, who was falsely accused of complicity in a plot against Pombal's Ufe.
Except around the Pra^a do Commercio, nearly all the important buildings of Lisbon are or have been churches and monasteries. Since their suppression, 28 May, 1834, the monasteries have been mamly used as barracks. The Catholic Faith is the State religion, but all other forms of worship are tolerated, and in government circles the feeling is anti-clerical if not anti-religious. The press is represented by two able journals, the "Diario dos Noticias" and "0 Seculo". The population of Lisbon in 1900 was computed at 357,000. The present King of Portugal is Manuel II, bom 15 November, 1889, who succeeded to the throne on the assassination of his father and elder brother 1 February, 1908. The reigning dynasty belongs to the House of Braganza-Coburg: John IV of Braganza having expelled the Spaniards from Lisbon in 1640, and Maria II of Braganza, having married Fernando, Prince of Coburg-Gotha, in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The Avenida da Libertade is one of the new boule- vards. It begins at the Praga do Restoradores, which commemorates Portugal's Independence Day, 1 Dec, 1640, when the Duke of Braganza freed the land from Spanish domination. The avenue is lined with trees and subtropical plants and is divided by flower-beds and rockeries into tliree arteries to facilitate trafiBc. Twenty years ago all this district did not exist, and as in the newer quarters in Rome, there has been some overbuilding. Behind the Avenida lie the Botanical Gardens with their leafy lanes and wealth of tropical vegetation. The Praga do Principe Real, a few min- utes* walk from the gardens, stanas on the site of the S^ Patriarchal, built by JoSo V (170G-1750), as the cathedral of Western Lisbon, and destroyed by fire during the great earthquake. The port of Lisbon, one of the safest and most commodious roadsteads in the world, is annually entered and cleared by an average of 60()0 vessels sailing under every flag. The chief manufactures of the neighbourhood are potterj', wool- lens, glass, preserved food, and fish. The wine trade of Lisbon is also important. Besides the public build- ings referred to, the Academia Real, theEscola Poly- technica (S'^O pupils) , and the Escola Medico-Cirur- gica (224 pupils), as well as the observatory, deserve mention. Lisbon has also a military school (339 stu- dents), a school of fine arts (69 students), and a Coi> servatorio (503 students). Lisbon was occupied by the French in 1807, but the English took it m 1808 and made it a centre of operations against Napoleon during the Peninsular War.
Ecclesiastical History. — ^The See of Lisbon dates from early Cliristian t iiiies, and tradition hasen8hrine<l
