Lisbon, part 3

Hello, everyone.

The other big museums/sights we saw in Lisbon were both on the same day, thanks to the city bus system.

First we took the Metro to the nearest stop to the Tile Museum. Then we asked directions and started walking. We were supposed to look for a grocery store sign: Lidl, which is right in front of the museum. Well, we walked right past it, and most of the way to the Parque des Nacoes. Then we figured out that we'd missed something. But we saw things en route, too.

Public art. 

Camino waymarker. That rough stuff around it is pretty standard for Portuguese pavement, too.

We did get ourselves straightened out, and by studying the maps in bus stops discovered that it is easy to get from the Tile Museum on one side of the city to the Jeronymite Monastery on the far side of it. And we were able to use our pre-paid metro system passes to pay the fare, too!

These are only two of the many, many works of art in the Tile Museum. It also includes a chapel--it was apparently a royal residence at one time. The bottom tile mural is in the chapel.

The monastery of the Jeronymite order is in a nearby beach town to Lisbon (basically a suburb) but even though it's very near by there was only some damage from the 1755 earthquake. (As opposed to the near total destruction to low lying areas of the main city from the quake and tsunami!) They did lose the railing on the choir loft. I didn't notice any visible cracking during the tour, so either it was fixed or, more likely, they got lucky and didn't have a whole lot of damage there.

The elaborate decorations on the front of the monastery are famous.

Tomb of Vasco da Gama!

Half of a confessional

A major part of the apostolate of the Jeronymite priests was to hear the confessions of seamen. They had enclosed confessionals in the church, with a little slit for air, and each one was matched to a booth that opened in the cloister for the priest to be in. (These are the only enclosed confessionals I have ever seen in the Iberian peninsula. All the rest have been like fancy wardrobe closets, with a booth for the priest and kneeler on the outside for the penitent. If you've been to St. Peter's in Rome, you've seen the design.)

The order eventually faded and now the monastery is under the care of the government museum people.