Lisbon under my skin (I)

It was the second time that I visited my beloved city, that was my treasure  since the moment I her from the plain. Now were the sea and the river which made me again fall into her arms. And I abandoned myself to her charming voice.The Grand Mistral came early in the morning by the estuary of the Tejo, and there was no way of missing the surprises that we would given by the landscape. Few things have marked so much my views like the entrance to two cities. One is Venice and the other one Lisboa. Who,  like me, has the luck to get the Portuguese capital on a cruise ship, will have facing him, as in a cinema screen, centuries of history of conquests, wealth, men of value and faith, decadence and saudade, love and hatred. All of them made of stone, cement or mortar, iron, glass or ceramic, waiting with patience that we put foot ashore to receive us as well as only a Portuguese knows how, with an open heart. At the beginning we only can distinguish, at dawn, the silhouette of the bridge 25 de Abril, among the mists or shining under the light of a new day.

Then, mindful of the left bank, where lies  Lisbon,  begins the parade of wonders: the unparalleled Torre de Belém, filigree in stone, and hope for sailors who came across the seas or last image of the departed; the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, homage of the great discoverers that armed only with their Christian faith, their courage and their fearlessness, gave Portugal Infinite Earths and infinite subjects to its Crown; at your front, land inward, the Jerónimos Monastery, place of gathering of Kings and Queens, rest of glories such as Vasco da Gama, Luis de Camões or Fernando Pessoa.



On the other side, already hosting us with his arms Cristo Rei, 25 metres in height, which watches and protects Lisbon from the top of a hill, perhaps to prevent it from being destroyed as in 1755 following an earthquake of 9 scale, which almost smashed the city and which was followed by a tsunami with waves between 6 and 20 meters high; We are now miraculously just under the bridge 25 April, almost 2 km long and 70 meters in light engineering and with poles that reach the 190 meters above the water level.



And suddenly we are in the Centre of Lisbon. On the bank of the river appears, before the ship, the Terreiro do Paço, and after him the Praça do Comércio, one of the finest in the world; above it, the castle of San George, the Cathedral ( known as Seo), São Vicente da Fora or the National Pantheon, which houses the remains of the illustrious men of Portugal. Santa Apolónia Pier welcomes us with diligence, as rushing us to meet your city, my city, Lisbon.




On the south side of the geometric and monumental Praça do Comércio or Terreiro do Paço, which housed the Royal Palace for 400 years, leading to FatherTejo and down stairs of marble pillars, the Cais das Colunas carries us to the river.Here docked in the past the caravels and galleons to unload spices, silks, gold, fine woods and fruits of the colonies, and the square teemed of merchants, sailors and buccaneers. A river of Crusaders flowed then to Lisbon and to count faster thousand of coins in a chest or box containing them exactly, what Portuguese phrase caixa, became to mean one thousand "escudos".



Today, those who come to the Tejo do ferries or cruise ships, as in my case, instead of in caravels and galleons.There are various opinions about the best time to visit the Cais. Some say that at dawn, others at midday and others to the sunset.











I've seen it the three ways, but I'll certainly take the Sunrise, when the backlight gives the magic to the columns and painted in gold the Praça, surely the last image that the sailors of yesteryear had stored in its memory.
The best way to enjoy and get to know Lisbon is living its streets, smell them, feel them, put them under the skin.In Alfama the streets smell of sardines, plaster wet, moss,  wine,  antique shops like those, those according to Portuguese heritage, we conserve in the Canary Islands, but especially smells of saudade, that melancholy which impregnated the walls and all those who left for distant lands and looked back.
Rossio is the heart of Lisbon, her central machine, with its shops of handicrafts and souvenirs, its historic cafés, flower stalls and pigeons, meeting place of the people who populated the former Portuguese colonies of Guinea, Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique.











The Baixa, favorite of Pessoa, is the commercial and financial centre, the monumental, reconstructed entirely by the Marquis of Pombal, after the earthquake of 1755. He gave Lisbon streets covered with tiles, headquarters of high fashion boutiques, shops of music or major international booksellers. The upper class of Lisbon can be breathed here...









Graça is the district workers, of the impossible descent stairways and viewpoints that leave the mouth wide open, the Feira da Ladra, trail that takes place behind the imposing church of San Vicente da Fora since 1882.




























Santa Luzia is our next stop.
To take a break from our walk by Lisbon, nothing better than approaching this indispensable, in any route, point of the beautiful city.Wonderful observatory, which mixes fresh gardens of lush trellises of bougainvilleas with balconies and banks of polychrome tiles that are open to the horizon of the Tagus on several levels.
Once the view gets used to such much beauty, we distinguish, among the narrow streets and the houses that seem to endure standing by dint of promises, the dome of Santa Engracia and charm of Alfama, the brightness of the river and the shore that seems to call us without ceasing. If we turn, the Church of Santa Luzia calls us also, but to teach us another landscape, which reflect its mosaics with the Praça of Comercio before the earthquake of 1755 and the expulsion of the Arabs from the city. Built under the protection of the Knights of Malta, it remains as one of the more simple but evocative buildings of the city of Lisbon.























San Vicente Da Fora, which means 'outside' and so must have been at the time, when it was built outside the city limits.Now, this beautiful renaissance building, sometimes, and from the distance,  seems more fortress than convent, must be included within any essential Lisbon visit.














Fruit of the promise made by King Afonso Henriques to San Vicente, a lavish Church in return for the expulsion of the moors from Portugal, and it  is supposed to contain the bones of the Saint. Inside, the white marble of the ceiling, the inlaid wood of the altar of the Conceição or the blue and white tiles illustrating Fables of La Fontaine, the gigantic organ or the beautiful canopy, give the temple a marked character of Museum of sacred and profane art, unique in the Portuguese capital.






















For royalists or curious about history, in the old sacristy, enabled at the time as a royal Pantheon, lie the remains of most of the members of the Royal House of Braganza, with the exception of one King and one Queen. A curiosity: when we go out, move on down the street that is on your left, the large Rua Arco Grande de Cima, and look at several references in the wall of the Church and its opposite...
Further down, the pantheon.



All visitors, or the vast majority, reach the Pantheon with the idea that it is, and they are not going very misguided, a place of burial, as his namesake in Paris, of the bones and ashes of the great Portuguese men.



What few people know, is that it is only a part of the great Church of Santa Engrácia, and his extensive architectural history starts in so far as the 17th century times and finishes in its conclusion in 1966, with the earthquake of Lisbon by means. The result was a Baroque blend with hints of various currencies provided by architects and engineers who were taking over from the construction.



Vasco de Gama, Camões, Afonso de Albuquerque and Enrique the Navigator, echoes of the great Portuguese history, or the President Carmona and writers Almeida Garrett and Guerra Junqueiro more recent and no less important, wait in the sleep of the righteous.It instils the height of the dome and the silence that reigns just crossing through the door of the enclosure. Be given honours and respect to the notable men of the country!










By the narrow alleys of Alfama circulate almost no cars, therefore it is more fun to take the electric, the famous tram number 28 which squeaking climbs up the steep and winding streets of the neighborhood to São Jorge. We must go down then, walking the Largo da Sé and go, without haste into the beautiful Cathedral, the oldest temple in the city.
.










Of course, and as in the entire Peninsula, is built on a mosque, after the reconquest of Lisbon, and it was restored after the earthquake of 1344 and 1755.Must be assumed that, as it should be in a Romanesque cathedral, the interior is dark, but the highlights of the stained glass windows and the fixtures, make shine the beauty of the bareness of the walls and polychrome and beautiful carvings that adorn it, the numerous monuments that illustrate different periods and styles of national history.








Sarcophagi, statues and coats of arms of stone belonging to sovereigns and knights of the Court, with the tomb of the unknown Princess, a beautiful baroque manger made of wood and terra cotta, a valuable baptismal font where according to tradition was named after San Antonio, the Tesouro da Sé keeps the rich ecclesiastical vestments and other Catholic golds.





























We can save a bit of our time to sit in the nave and admire what surrounds us, or pray, according to our belief or conveniences.There are many centuries who are watching us, almost ten.







Chiado quarter, reborn, like the Phoenix from the ashes, of the fire that destroyed half of his body in 1988. Aristocratic and elegant, worship and intellectual, writer and poet as his acolytes Ribeiro or Pessoa.
Bairro Alto of a thousand faces, cheerful, African, Bohemian, succulent cuisine or mecca of Fado, which doesn't know whether staying in its past or venturing into the future.There are more neighborhoods, there are more streets, there are more Lisbon, but I am not going to reveal their secrets. You have to live it under the skin.