Belém, Lisbon

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Jeronimos is a wonderful monastery, build in the 16th century, to celebrate the discoveries and to be the king Manuel I’s burial monument. It took all the century to build, and houses the tombs of the king and his sons. It is one of the best examples of Manueline architecture (the other "super" examples are Batalha and Tomar, with the famous window), a Portuguese style in transition between gothic and renaissance, making use of nautical decorations, and that took the king’s name. The church and mainly the cloisters are splendorous.

In the main corps you can also see the tombs of Vasco da Gama and Camões, transferred there about 50 years ago.

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If you have, at least, one day in Lisbon, Belem is one of the things you shouldn't miss. You may build your own program, from a couple of hours till one or more days.

Supposing that you will have only half day, then you can only have a glimpse of the ensemble of the Praça do Imperio, visit the Tower and Jeronimos. The area is still keeping the look won in 1940, when the political regime tried to make an impressive exhibition to hide the colonial nature of our possessions in Africa and Asia, spreading the idea of a multiracial, multicultural, and universal country. The gardens and some buildings were kept. For instance, the Popular Art Museum (Museu de Arte Popular) and the restaurant in the artificial lake (Espelho de Agua) were part of the exhibition. But the real gems of Belem come from history, with Jeronimos and the Tower on top.

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This monument stands on the sea front right opposite the Monastery. It is impressive in itself but also you can climb up to the top to see the beautiful view from there and also there is a movie inside describing the history of the city of Lisbon which we found quite interesting.
Then walk along the seafront ( preferably with an ice cream) and you will come to the Tower of Belem. Thus the three major sites are all close to each other in this area.

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This place is definitely a must see. I did not realize how many photos we had taken till I got home, but it was just so beautiful and impressive.The Monastery is massive and it was fascinating to walk around all the different parts and look at the different styles of architecture.Also it is nice that in Belem all the sights are near each other so it makes for a great day out. Just be warned about the number 15 tram (see my warnings and dangers)

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Most have already been said about this monument. It's made of concrete, its really big and its site leaves you with this sense of the glorious past of the city - you might know that these people existed and had achieved much, but to actually see their images in front of you gives you strong feelings.

You can take Tram 15 to stop Belem. The monument (as well as the Torre de Belem) is about 5 - 10 minutes walking from there and you pass to the other side of the street, towards the marina, taking an underground crossing. You reach the monument and choose background for your photos; from one side you'll have bridge Vasco da Gama from the other you'll have Torre de Belem.

You can go up to the top of the monument (by elevator) where you enjoy beauuutiful views around, to the Tagus river, the bridge, the Jeronimo's monastery and the whole Belem. You can go to the exhibitions of the basement (I hear these change). You can watch the audiovisual "show" on the history of Lisbon. Or you can do all of these. I decided to take all of these and I didn't regret it, I enjoyed very much the views and the show which is rather a short movie, pictures, music, history. So here is the story:

You wait on the queue. You go to the cashier's. Do you want only a ticket to the top or you are interested in the multimedia show as well. The price for both (includes the exhibitions of the basement, there was a painting exhibition when I visited) is just 1€ more than the show alone so it's like why not, give me both :)

They tell you when the next "show" begins: "you may go to the basement to see the art exhibition, you will be hearing music, when the music stops you should come upstairs", so you know when. In the basement there is also the WC but you must have your ears open for the music to stop, remember? He he - so the time comes, you go upstairs, there is this very pleasant guy who gives you the earphones with the player and shows you how to choose language and adjust the volume.

Then he says "at the beginning it will be just music, it takes about 40 seconds for the voice to start so don't worry if you hear nothing". And you end up waiting for this voice to start for about 5 minutes, wondering how long 40 seconds might last. And then you overhear some voices from the players of the others who have adjusted it loud, and then you just know that something is going wrong. And then you realize that the music is coming externally, while your earphones are not properly plugged in. You fool.

Ok I admitted I lost some of the part with Ulysses but I had all the rest which was beautiful. I felt proud of being in Lisbon in the end (they have the best marketing for their city in this movie ha).

I totally recommend it, do this!

WE went here to see the art of Andy Warhol,but they had been taken away.It still reads at some info-pages,that you can see Warhol here,but it´s not true .Or then they have taken them back again.
For us this was littöe disapointment.Luckily a free one.We do like modern art,but not all.Most of art here was too simple-like blue painting-with only one color on it.I have been to art-school,graduated at 1994,and they had many things here that made me remeber the words of our teacher"If there is a good point,or good idea at art,it is art-even if a child could have done it.But if there´s no good idea at it,don´t just say you like it,because they say it´s art".I think they had too much those"no idea"-artpieces here.Someone might get angry,but this is our opinion.
We allmost liked the best about that piece at the front of the door.Made by wine-bottles or similar.

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I guess you all have seen this in travel-books and at tv,so I feel I don´t need to explain so much.
In fact,we didn´t go in.We went to front door,but it looked like it would take ages to get in (we didn´t have Lisoba-card) and it wasn´t so cheap either.We had just been up to Discoverys monument,so we thought that it´s enough to see this outside.It is nice-looking tower.And if you have Lisboa-card,you´ll get in "free" and perhaps without waiting on the line.
I wont put photo of whole tower,because you must have seen those so many ;)

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I wasn´t so interested in this from the photos I´ve seen,but since we were close to it,I amazed by the size of the monument.My husband,who knowns I don´t like high places,went in and just bought two tickets to elevator!So I had to get up-and I´m glad I did!After this one I also did go to Christo Rei at another day!
After visiting-I´d say you should visit it!