Portugal - December 2005

December 22^nd
We strolled up the Avenida da Liberdade to look at the Parque Eduardo VII and visit the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum of Moderm Art (sorry, no pictures of the museum). The Avenida da Liberdade is a 1.3 km long avenue full of trees from beginning to end. It climbs uphill gradually as you proceed to the Parque Eduardo VII. The steep, formally laid-out park was named after Britain’s Edward VII, who visited the city in 1903. From the top of the park you can see all the way down the Avenida da Liberdade, back into the city and the Rio Tejo.

The view from Parque Eduardo VII looking back into Lisbon

December 23^rd
This morning we walked a few blocks to see the Igreja do Convento do Carmo (Church of the Carmo Convent). The church was built in 1389 and was enhanced throughout the centuries with new chapels and different decorations. On November 1^st 1755, most of the vault collasped in the Lisbon earthquake. Today it houses the Museu Arqueológico do Carmo, home to many of the treasures from monasteries that were dissolved after the 1834 Liberal revolution.The entire nave is open to the elements, with columns, tombs and statuary scattered in all corners. Inside, on either side of what was the main altar, are the main exhibits, centering on a series of tombs.

As luck would have it, the Elevador de Santa Justa opened on the day that we visited the Convento do Carmo. It had been closed for several years. Built in 1902 by a disciple of Eiffel, its giant lift whisks you 32m up the inside of a latticework metal tower, to deposit you on a platform high above the Baixa.

The nave of the Convento do Carmo

The outside of the Convento do Carmo from the Elevador de Santa Justa

Baixa rooftops from the Elevador de Santa Justa

Railway of the Elevador da Bica, one of the city’s funicular railways

A woman carrying goods up the Elevador da Bica