Lisbon is best approached by water. Like the Portuguese capital itself, the Lisbon suburb of Belém ought to be seen, first, from across that ever-widening brown-yellow river: the Tejo, the Tagus, the “sea of straw”.
It is worth boarding one of the German-made tugboats that, for the price of a good cup of coffee, ferry passengers to and from the villages of Trafaria and Porto Brandão (motto: “Where the Tagus meets the Sea”) on the river’s south shore, if only for the traveller to enjoy the prospect of Belém’s landmarks greeting him on his return.
Toy-like from a distance, Belém Tower is almost comical in its pointless determination to stand guard over the busy watercourse. It was built in the 16th century by a military architect with a fondness for Moorish flourishes, the result of time spent erecting Portuguese forts in Morocco.
The poet Fernando Pessoa called the tower “a magnificent stone jewel”. Once the gateway to Lisbon for all seafarers, it stood on an islet until the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, and subsequent silting, changed the course of the river. Today it seems reluctantly stuck to dry land, still dreaming of a grander bygone purpose.
If the tower is an authentic relic of Portugal’s maritime golden age, its aura has been diminished by the Monument to the Age of Discovery that rises theatrically further east. Its purpose, when it was put up in 1960 by the dictator Salazar, was to glorify the men who paved the way for Portugal’s overseas empire.
The monument represents a ship’s bow, with Prince Henry (Henrique) the Navigator (1394-1460) standing valiantly at the front. Dom Henrique himself never sailed further than Africa’s north coast, but is still honoured as the sponsor of the earliest Portuguese expeditions. The prow juts out over the water’s edge. Seen from the river, it looks as if the stone ship is about to set sail. Only later, and ashore again, does one realise that the back of the monument is carved into the shape of those two enablers of empire – a cross and a sword.
Even before docking, one hears a strange hive-like sound, a muted but persistent buzz, and permanent companion around Belém. It is the noise of cars zipping over the suspension bridge that spans the Tagus, the Ponte 25 de Abril, named after the date of Portugal’s bloodless revolution of 1974.
On land, finding a humble pedestrian bridge or underpass to cross Avenida de Brasilia and Avenida da Índia is the first test once disembarked at Belém’s Estação Fluvial. Belém is only four miles away from Lisbon’s bustling centre, but, once the high-speed avenues have been successfully negotiated, life here feels quieter and gentler, almost provincial.
It’s impossible to ignore the outsized Centro Cultural de Belém. This bunker-like building by Vittorio Gregotti and Manuel Salgado houses one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of modern art, amassed by an eccentric self-made Portuguese magnate.
Then on to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Belém’s masterpiece of overwrought, nautically themed Manueline architecture. Here are the ornate sarcophagi of Vasco da Gama, discoverer of the sea-route to India, and Luís Vaz de Camões, who celebrated da Gama’s maritime feats in his epic poem, “The Lusiads”.
In the monastery’s shaded cloister is the poet and writer Fernando Pessoa’s tomb, a spare slab of pink-grey marble, girdled by a metal band. Pessoa (1888-1935) famously created three heteronyms, or alter-egos, each one endowed with a distinct writing style and personality. As Álvaro de Campos, Pessoa wrote: “Don’t tell me about conclusions! The only conclusion is death.” It is a fitting epitaph. Outside, Pessoa’s statue bakes in the midday sun outside a Lisbon landmark, A Brasileira coffee-house, but the real Pessoa and three of his “others” enjoy the cloister’s cool stillness.
The monastery’s construction began in the early 16th century. When a liberal government shut down all religious institutions in the 1830s, the enterprising monks made ends meet by baking and selling Portuguese custard cakes: pastéis de nata. The monastery’s cakes remain famous to this day, and are sold at the nearby Pastéis de Belém. Try them with a chilled glass of sweet Setúbal wine.
With so many things to admire, visitors to Lisbon often miss the treasures at their feet. Most are too busy to notice the myriad mosaics that embellish the pavements, or the people who create them. Outside Pastéis de Belém one of the city’s calceteiros, described by the writer José Cardoso Pires as part stonemasons, part calligraphers, is busy repairing a sidewalk design. Falling into conversation with him, I find that one square metre of black-and-white mosaic requires a whole day’s toil. I decide never again to walk with casual disregard over the work of this dying breed of street artists.
The nearby Jardim de Ultramar is stocked with plant species brought from Portugal’s overseas colonial possessions. It is modest, as far as botanical gardens go, but a pleasant oasis of greenery and calm for a hot day.
No less green and shaded is the Calçada do Galvão, lined with recently flowered jacarandas, which runs uphill to the Igreja da Memória, the Church of Memory. This small church holds the remains of the man responsible for the rebuilding of Lisbon after the Great Earthquake, the Marquis of Pombal.
There is little to see of Pombal these days. What is left of him is in an urn. But under the church’s lightning-damaged dome, a team of conservators are restoring altars and railings. The floor is covered with flakes of freshly molted gold leaf. I touch the gleaming, paper-thin sliver, which sticks to the fingertip. Before I can consider walking out with this lustrous souvenir, a stern-faced priest orders me to leave it where I found it.
Leaving Belém for the district of Ajuda, further up Calçada do Galvão is the Jardim Botanico de Ajuda, which offers an incomparable view back over Belém. I look out amid ancient dragon trees and squealing white peacocks, gazing down over the roof of the Jerónimos monastery, past the monument and the tower, and out towards the Tagus, where all Lisbon journeys begin and end. To my left is the bridge, its perpetual buzz still filling the afternoon air.
………………….
Details
The Centro Cultural de Belém hosts concerts, performances and exhibitions across the arts, including an annual summer jazz school from July 16-24, which includes a range of concerts (www.ccb.pt).
The Pasteis de Belém serves breakfast and lunch. Set menus cost €7-€18 and include drinks. Booking is available for parties of 12 or more (www.pasteisdebelem.pt).
The Ajuda Botanical Garden was heavily damaged in a hurricane in 1941 and underwent restoration several years later. There was a second restoration from 1995 to 1997, in an attempt to restore the original collection. The gardens are open all year round, and the Higher Institute of Agronomy runs a number of courses there (www.jardimbotanicodajuda.com).
The Mosterio dos Jeronimos and the nearby Tower of Belém are Unesco world heritage sites. Guided walks around the monastery and tower are available from local tourist agencies. Entrance costs €6. (www.mosteriojeronimos.pt).