City guide · Lisboa

Lisbon

Starting point of the Age of Discovery: Belém Tower, the Jerónimos Monastery and the Alfama

Foto: Miguel Vieira · CC BY 2.0

Lisbon sits at the mouth of the Tagus. The monastery and tower in Belém tell of the wealth of the Age of Discovery, the Alfama keeps lanes from the Moorish era, and the orderly grid of the Baixa was rebuilt after the great earthquake of 1755.

History

Los orígenes de la ciudad

Archaeology shows Iron Age people lived on today's Castle Hill in the 8th to 6th centuries BC and traded with the Phoenicians; in Roman times the city was called Olisipo. In 711 Umayyad Muslim forces captured Lisbon, and the name of the Alfama district comes from Arabic. In 1147 King Afonso I of Portugal took Lisbon with the help of crusaders, and it became the capital in 1255. From the late 15th to the early 17th century most voyages of the Age of Discovery set out from Lisbon, including da Gama's voyage that opened the sea route to India; the city enjoyed a golden age and the Manueline style flourished. The earthquake of 1 November 1755 destroyed 85% of the city's buildings, and the Marquis of Pombal oversaw the rebuilding of the Baixa on a modern plan. The revolution of 5 October 1910 overthrew the monarchy, and the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 ended the Estado Novo regime.

711Umayyad forces captured Lisbon
1147Afonso I took Lisbon
1255Lisbon became the capital of Portugal
1497–1499Da Gama's first voyage to India opened the sea route from Europe to Asia
1755The earthquake of 1 November destroyed 85% of the city's buildings
1910The revolution of 5 October made Portugal a republic
1974Carnation Revolution on 25 April

Stories

Historias de la ciudad

Historia · Belém Tower

A rhinoceros on the tower

Belém Tower was designed by the military architect Francisco de Arruda and completed in 1519, two years before King Manuel I died. The base of one of its corner turrets bears a carved rhinoceros, considered the first rhinoceros sculpture in Western European art, probably depicting the rhino given to Manuel by an Indian ruler and passed on by him to Pope Leo X in 1515.

Historia · Pastel de nata (pastel de Belém)

The monks' egg yolks and the sugar refinery's secret recipe

The monks of the Jerónimos Monastery used large amounts of egg white to starch their habits and made pastries with the leftover yolks. After the Liberal Revolution of 1820 religious orders were dissolved, and to make a living the monks began selling custard tarts at a nearby sugar refinery. When the monastery closed in 1834 the recipe was sold to the refinery, and in 1837 its owner opened the 'Pastéis de Belém' shop. The original recipe is still locked in a secret room inside the shop.

Historia · Jerónimos Monastery

A monastery built on the spice tax

Manuel I ordered this monastery built near the point from which Vasco da Gama set out on his first voyage to India, as a resting place for the House of Aviz, funded by a tax on the profits of the annual India fleets. The great earthquake of 1755 destroyed most of Lisbon, yet the monastery lost only a balustrade and part of the high choir. In 1880 remains believed to be da Gama's were moved to a new tomb in the nave, just a few metres from the kings he served, Manuel I and João III — though later research found that the coffin moved in 1880 contained the bones of more than one person.

People