Lisbon - Day 3 - Belem

One of the other must sees is the Lisbon neighborhood of Belem.  It is famous for Jeronimo's Monastery and Belem's Tower.

 Originally built in the 14th century, it was extensively remodeled in the 15th century under King Manuel I.  It is cited as a prime example of Manueline Architecture.









The interior courtyard is beautiful.  It is a joy to walk around and see.  The puffy storm clouds kept threatening to rain on us, but the sun kept poking through and gave us a lovely warm day.

The interior of the church is beautiful and huge as one would expect.  It was considerably damaged in the big earthquake of 1755, and what we see today was rebuilt and expanded from the church that existed before then.

Across the street is a park that leads to the river.  No building is allowed to be constructed that would block the view of the monastery from the river.

A short walk down the river is Belem Tower, which was originally built as a defensive structure to protect the entrance to the river and port of Lisbon from enemies trying to get in from the ocean.














It was lovely walking along the river bank enjoying the fresh sunny air.

For lunch we walked a block from the monastery to Pasteis de Belem.  This bakery is reputed to be the birthplace for the famous Portuguese Custard Tarts.

The story is that the recipe for the tarts came from the monastery, and that they were made to help fund it. 

Now of course, these tarts are a symbol of Portugal, and are enjoyed all over the world.  I know we certainly have eaten our share here.  And they are in deed heavenly.

Fueled up on tarts, we walked around the corner to the Imperial Coach Museum, which is reputed to have the largest collection of royal coaches in the world.











It was a very nice assortment of amazing coaches.  It may have been larger than the one in Munich, but I thought that the coaches in the Munich Marstallmuseum were more impressive.

Still, the royalty in Portugal lived very well and had some very nice vehicles.

 Even if a lot of them were built in France. . .

While Tony went for some retail therapy at El Corte Ingles, the famous department store, I visited the Gulbenkian Art Museum.  It is a fabulous assortment of art collected by one man during his life.









Following his death, a museum was created to hold all of the different pieces.














It contains ancient pottery to impressionist paintings to interesting sculptures and home furnishings.  








 

This man collected a lot of beautiful things in his life and clearly had great taste.

He even owned a candelabra of a winged dragon with 3 heads.  I wonder if it could have been the inspiration for King Ghidora in the Godzilla movies.












The museum is almost a work of art in itself.




Situated in the middle of a beautiful park in central Lisbon, it was a nice place to walk around and relax following a busy day of sightseeing.  The grounds would be a nice place for a picnic or a concert.

That evening, Tony and I walked over to a small Tapas Bar to have a chill evening of wine and tapas.  We tried some Portuguese Red Beans and Rice and fried Octopus.  We also tried a Lisbon specialty, Chicken Gizzard Stew, which was absolutely delicious. 







After dinner, we wandered over to Santini's Gelato, or gelado in Portuguese.  I can't imagine better ice cream to be found in Lisbon.