Portuguese Steemfest Monastery Praça do Império 22/12/2017

simonjay (76)in #travel • 7 years ago

Hello Steemian so after a wonderful night at the main Steemfest hotel in the secret garden and a yummie hotel breakfast in the morning it was time to catch the coach @roelandp said there would be like 6 coaches to take us all to the main Steemfest event area.

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Having our own Steemfest coaches was freaking amazing the coach was taking us to Praça do Império which for me was an honour and I hope other Steemians realise its the largest square in the Iberian Peninsula and one of the largest in Europe it measures about 280 m by 280 maybe more.

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I had been before many years ago in the area but it was only to see the Padrao dos descobrimentos anyway I tried more to concentrated on the Praça do Império this time but unfortunately didn't have much time for that either.

Padrao Dos Descobrimentos

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The square commemorates the Portuguese Empire and was built for the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940 in the center of the square is a 3.300 m garden with a large fountain in the middle but while that is definitely very beautiful it was not the main reason (or what I was most excited to see) its what was around the square.
It was the Jerónimos Monastery which really had my interest.

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The monastery is one of the most prominent late examples of the Portuguese Gothic style of architecture the monastery replaced a church formerly existing in the same place.
It was the King Manuel who petitioned for permission to construct a monastery at the site the church was apparently already known to be in disrepair at the time.
The construction for building this monastery began on the 6th of January in 1501 and would you believe it took 100 years for it to be completed!!

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Monks of Hieronymite were to occupy the monastery their role was simple, to pray for the King's eternal soul and to provide spiritual assistance to navigators and sailors who departed in discovery of new lands.
The monks of Hieronymite did this for over four centuries but it was in 1833 when their religious orders were stopped and the monastery was abandoned....

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What a shame it was such a rich ornate of architectural style with an amazing complex of sculptural themes yet abandoned.. but with the restoration of Portuguese Independence the monastery regained much of its former importance and it become the burial place for the royal pantheon four of the eight children of John IV of Portugal were entombed

In 1755 there was a huge earthquake but the monastery withstood it without strangely taking much damage but even this damage was swiftly repaired.

Thanks to Samuel Barret for constructing the towers in the western end of the dormitories its one of my favourite parts.

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And it was between 1867 and 1868 that they profoundly altered the Church which then appears as it is to this day I would of liked to see how this building first looked but it probably wouldn't look as amazing as it does now but it still would of been fascinating to see.

Basically the monastery and Padrão dos Descobrimentos both symbolise the Portuguese age of discovery....

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....and are infact the main tourist attractions of Lisbon.

I wish I had more time there to explore it but I believe other Steemians did and posted about it, if Steemfest 3 was in the same location I would try to go and explore the monastery further but feel it would be very difficult as pulling away from the amazing event would also be a shame, maybe one day if I ever have the money to go back without the event taking place live.