Belém

10-Oct-23

It seems like everywhere we've been on this trip - even in Spain - we've heard about the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (estimated as high as 8.5) that destroyed the city. It was felt as far away as Northern Europe & North Africa. So we HAD to visit the Quake Museum. It was a cool interactive museum all about earthquake science. They had two earthquake simulation rooms. One where you could stand on a moving floor and experience the quake level of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The other sat you in a recreation of a church nave where the pews shook and projection screens around you showed simulations of the 18th century church crumbling around you & catching fire. It was a bit like a morbid (kinda tone def) ride at Universal Studios but I was totally enjoying it! 😄😬

After the 1755 Earthquake that destroyed Lisbon, the Portuguese royal family moved into a temporary encampment away from the destruction of the city. That site eventually became the grandiose Baroque-Rococo Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, at least until the monarchy was exiled by the 1910 revolution. 🙃 

Carriage entrance

Inner courtyard

Interior rooms

Jerónimos Monastery (left) & Church of Santa Maria de Belem (right) took the entire 16th century to build (paid for by taxes on African & Indian spices). 

Inner cloister

I didn't want Nick to feel left out with all the other tourists taking their IG selfies

Church of Santa Maria de Belem (next door to monastery)

Vasco da Gama's tomb - 15th century Portuguese explorer

Tomb of Luís de Camões - 16th century Portuguese poet

Belém Tower was a fortified 'ceremonial gateway' to Lisbon in the 16th century (Portuguese Renaissance) 

Numerous Portuguese Blubber Jellies had washed up along the beach

Monument of the Discoveries - commemorating the Portuguese Age of Discovery (15th-16th centuries), situated along the Tagus River where those ships actually departed 500 years ago