today we went to belem... which used to be the last stop for sailors before
the tagus estuary opened up into the atlantic... ships returning from africa, india, and brasil brought great wealth and prestige to portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries... the new found wealth allowed Portuguese kings to build triumphal architecture throughout lisbon... much of that was destroyed in 1755 in an earthquake, giving the prime minister the marques de Pombal a chance to rebuild the destroyed center of the city in the prevailing baroque style. still, in districts like belem, some of the older buildings survived undamaged, like the monastery of st jerome (or geronimos in portuguese.) king manuel I had it built in the 1498 as a place for the kings of portugal
to be buried. it was paid for with a tax on pepper and spices from the
portuguese trade routes. the church is still a church, although, it felt less like a church because of the number of tourists making their way through it today... so i hurried around the church and made my way to the cloister, where the size and scale and fountain made life quiet and peaceful... after destressing from the frantic pace of the church i went to the archeology museum next door...
the monastery has been converted into two museums, the archeology museum and the naval museum. the archeology museum had several interesting exhibits, and one that upset me somewhat... they had an exhibit tracing religion in lusitania and iberia from pre-history into the roman era... which was interesting... lots of interesting statues in bronze and marble of various Gods... but the exhibit ended with roman tombstones found in iberia... which began to disturb me, then i went into the exhibit on egypt and was bothered by the mummy that they had on display.... there were two sarcophaguses, one closed and one open, and then one very well preserved mummy on display as well. just think, at one point that mummy was a man like anyone today, and he died and was buried in his tomb for eternity... then, his preserved corpse was sold to someone who brought it to lisbon and put it in a glass case for rambunctious school children to gawk at (when i was there, it was very quiet and peaceful, my mom and i were the only ones in the room, but still, its easy to picture a bunch of 8 year old huns running around the exhibit) so basically, what we as humans have to look forward to is death followed by exhibit to our very distant ancestors as skeletal remains and mummified bodies.
the cool exhibit was greek vases. ive seen larger collections before at places in berlin on museum insel, but the germans penchant for organisation wasnt quite as nice as the portuguese exhibit despite the vastness of the collection. this exhibit only had 10-15 vases, but, they had the vase, and then an enlarged picture of the vase with an excerpt from a relevant poem... so there
were quotes from greek poets, from sophocles, from mythology, and from the illiad. lots of scenes of Dionysus on drinking cups... which makes sense... that makes drinking wine a religious thing... so your
bacchanalian is actually a religious ceremony then... or something like it. the naval museum is a naval museum pictures, paintings, model ships, and the like, and thats about it.
one of my favourite monuments in the world is the monument to the explorers in belem. the figures faces just look so determined and proud, and i'm
not sure how to describe it, but it's just so dramatic. i never get tired of looking at it.
the tagus estuary opened up into the atlantic... ships returning from africa, india, and brasil brought great wealth and prestige to portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries... the new found wealth allowed Portuguese kings to build triumphal architecture throughout lisbon... much of that was destroyed in 1755 in an earthquake, giving the prime minister the marques de Pombal a chance to rebuild the destroyed center of the city in the prevailing baroque style. still, in districts like belem, some of the older buildings survived undamaged, like the monastery of st jerome (or geronimos in portuguese.) king manuel I had it built in the 1498 as a place for the kings of portugal 
to be buried. it was paid for with a tax on pepper and spices from the
portuguese trade routes. the church is still a church, although, it felt less like a church because of the number of tourists making their way through it today... so i hurried around the church and made my way to the cloister, where the size and scale and fountain made life quiet and peaceful... after destressing from the frantic pace of the church i went to the archeology museum next door...
the monastery has been converted into two museums, the archeology museum and the naval museum. the archeology museum had several interesting exhibits, and one that upset me somewhat... they had an exhibit tracing religion in lusitania and iberia from pre-history into the roman era... which was interesting... lots of interesting statues in bronze and marble of various Gods... but the exhibit ended with roman tombstones found in iberia... which began to disturb me, then i went into the exhibit on egypt and was bothered by the mummy that they had on display.... there were two sarcophaguses, one closed and one open, and then one very well preserved mummy on display as well. just think, at one point that mummy was a man like anyone today, and he died and was buried in his tomb for eternity... then, his preserved corpse was sold to someone who brought it to lisbon and put it in a glass case for rambunctious school children to gawk at (when i was there, it was very quiet and peaceful, my mom and i were the only ones in the room, but still, its easy to picture a bunch of 8 year old huns running around the exhibit) so basically, what we as humans have to look forward to is death followed by exhibit to our very distant ancestors as skeletal remains and mummified bodies.
the cool exhibit was greek vases. ive seen larger collections before at places in berlin on museum insel, but the germans penchant for organisation wasnt quite as nice as the portuguese exhibit despite the vastness of the collection. this exhibit only had 10-15 vases, but, they had the vase, and then an enlarged picture of the vase with an excerpt from a relevant poem... so there 
were quotes from greek poets, from sophocles, from mythology, and from the illiad. lots of scenes of Dionysus on drinking cups... which makes sense... that makes drinking wine a religious thing... so your
bacchanalian is actually a religious ceremony then... or something like it. the naval museum is a naval museum pictures, paintings, model ships, and the like, and thats about it.
one of my favourite monuments in the world is the monument to the explorers in belem. the figures faces just look so determined and proud, and i'm
not sure how to describe it, but it's just so dramatic. i never get tired of looking at it.
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