Lisbon is situated on the North side of the river Tagus, which opens to to the Atlantic Ocean to the West. The large Tagus river therefore provides wonderful protection for the Portuguese capital harbour. There was a need to defend the capital from various forces, and the Belem tower was conceived to protect a vacant space where other Portuguese forts could not reach. Still the tower was not particularly successful in defending Lisbon, and was only in service as a fortress from 1519 to 1580, when the troops stationed at the tower surrendered to Spanish, who conquered Portugal for a brief period known as the Philippine Period, since the Spanish kings during this period were all named Phillip.
The tower served mainly as a prison and a customs house for incoming merchant ships after it was sacked by the Spanish, with the nearby
Forte do Bom Sucesso serving to defend the city.
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The tower is rather beautiful, made of eggshell limestone.
During high tide, the tower is literally in the Tagus river.
You can access the tower with a walkway if you like to visit.
It was Christmastime when we visited so the building was closed unfortunately.
Still they say that the Jeronimos Monastery is a better visit than the tower of Belem. At the Jeronimos monastery you can see the classic "Manueline" architecture of the Portuguese renaissance, named after the King Manuel of that period.
You can see quite a bit from the outside:
A guy was hunting for clams down in the river. Portugal has great seafood!
There are better beaches in southern Portugal.
There's a miniature tower of Belem you can play in:
If you have a high-power camera, like my sister, Noodle Magnusdottir, you can see some of the Manueline decorations:
My sister, Noodle, could make out features on the moon with her camera.
Here's the Manueline Cathedral built on the Moon after the Vasco da Gama sailed there during the age of discovery:
They have to have thick windows due to the low atmospheric pressure:
Here's back at the tower of Belem:
The Portuguese Renaissance produced some extremely beautiful architecture!
The Portuguese are proud of their Naval tradition, having been the first to sail around the world (Vasco da Gama).
The Monument to the Discoveries, located nearby the tower of Belem celebrates this period of Portuguese life.
You can take an elevator to the top of the Monument and sights like the Golden Gate Bridge, which was accidentally sold to Portugal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was drunk.
The Jeronimos Monastery-- another post on this next week! (9th of February).
You can see the nearby Atlantic Ocean.
It's a forward thinking Monument, celebrating the Portuguese empire!
It's too bad about San Francisco loosing it's bridge.
Lisbon likes to collect monuments from around the world.
This one was the Christ the Redeemer, sold when the mayor of Rio de Janeiro needed money for
Cachaça.
There are some pretty harbours on the boardwalk.
As well as some really clean pools of water.
You can see the red-roofed neighborhoods of Lisbon.
And the footbal stadium
Directly nearby is the Jeronimos Monastery.
Built in the Manueline style, along with the football stadium.
The plaza behind the monument has beautiful compass design with a map of the world.
The Portuguese used to rule the world...
From Brazil to Mozambique to Sri Lanka to Macau...
...the Portuguese spread the joys of imperialism...
Well, they're a very nice country now!
One which made wonderful contributions to navigation & geography.
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You read all about Lisbon on my Beautiful Lisbon Post!
Thanks to info from lentop on Reddit, there are some really amazing photos of the Tower of Belem & Portugal from 1930 - 1980 on Flicker:
Splaceba Charesho, Sauce
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