Lisboa ... (Alfama)

 According to the Portuguese writer José Cardoso Pires "One only likes a city when one is its accomplice" ... and this is exactly what I feel most of us aren't ..., whether we may like  a city  or not ...

Not having been born in the capital city I have nevertheless tried to get to know it ... by wandering around, "capturing" its "personality", the one its traces may or may not tell us ... or maybe what I have been trying to do is merely understand  why certain buildings attract me more than others ... and if they do, why is that?


Campo das Cebolas Square is not exactly what one might call a nice square but the 16th century Casa dos Bicos (House of the Spikes)  facade with the Manueline windows and portals gives it a rather exquisite "touch" ... and whenever I walk by I can't resist looking at it.

The Catedral de Santa Maria Maior (Patriarchal Cathedral of Saint. Mary  Major) may not look that attractive because of  its medieval fortress-like resembling facade, but one just has to walk into its gothic cloister to have a different perspective.

The beauty of its sculpted archs  and columns is worth looking at and so are the 14th century Gothic tombs of the Knight Lopo Ferandes Pacheco, 7th Lord of Ferreira de Aves - a nobleman at the service of King Afonso IV and his wife's, both of which are "guarded" by dogs ...

I have always loved stone sculptures, tombs and details ..., which may be the reason why inspite of having only been inside it in 2008, I seem to have "changed" my initial opinion,the one I had had merely based on the outside ...

Walking further up on the left side of the Cathedral there used to be an old horse stable then adapted to an Art Galery, which no longer exists as such, having been replaced by a shop selling Portuguese hand-made artefacts. Though it is still interesting I feel it has lost part of its "magic", with the paintings hanging over the ancient horse drinking basins concealing the dim lighting that made them "visible" to the ingoing public.

 

The old trams will never lose their "magic" ...  they are still very much embedded in the old city quarters, such as the one around the  Castelo de São Jorge (Castle of Saint George), once fortified by Romans, Visigoths and Moors, whose oldest parts date from the 6th century.

 

There is no doubt that from its strongly fortified citadel one can have some of the most amazing views  of the city and the Tagus river, this having been one of the reasons why visiting the castle nowadays is not for free as it used to be.

 (to be continued)