Jerónimos Monastery

At the end of the 15th century, Belém was around an hour and half from Lisbon. In the old times, there were no cars or tarred roads. People moved on foot, in carts and on Roman roads. Belém had only a small fishing village. Perhaps due to its geographical location, as it is close to the sea, it was here that Prince Henrique, the Navigator (1394-1460), the great driver of Portuguese maritime expansion, had the small Hermitage of Santa Maria de Belém built. It was here that navigators said their prayers before setting out to sea.

Travel and maritime trade made the area grow. Later, it was also here that King Manuel I (1469-1521) had the Monastery of Santa Maria de Belém built, today known as the Jerónimos Monastery because the King handed it over to the friars of the order of Saint Jerome. That explains the name.

História da colonização portuguesa do Brasil / dir. e coord. lit. Carlos Malheiro Dias ; dir. cartográfica Ernesto de Vasconcelos ; dir. artística Roque Gameiro. Porto: Litografia Nacional, 1921-1924

A curiosity about this fact, is that this religious order was traditionally linked to the Castilian monarchy. It is said that King Manuel I chose his bride having in mind that his marriage would facilitate the unification of the Iberian Peninsula, in his favor, of course. Yes, we know it sounds strange, but at that time, more than romantic connections, royal marriages established political-diplomatic alliances. And, in fact, this king married the heiress to the throne of Castile and Aragon, from whom he had a son, who would be the heir to the crown of Portugal, Castile and Aragon. The king’s plans were thwarthed since the queen died during childbirth and the crown prince two years later, thus postponing the Iberian Union.

Ancient chroniclers argued that the Monastery was built by order of the King as a way of thanking for the discovery of the sea route to India. More recent historians contradict this theory based on chronology: the monastery’s construction plan (1496) and respective papal authorization (1497), predate the arrival to India by sea (1498).

Having said that, it is a fact that the construction of the two most important national monuments of the 16th century, the Jerónimos Monastery and the Belém Tower, was financed by the profits from the spices trade from India.

D. Manuel I, who wasn’t a direct claimant to the throne, hit the jackpot. He inherited the crown by appointment from his cousin, D. João II, who had no direct legitimate descendants. It was during his reign that the sea route to India was discovered (1498) and thus the oceaning India route an extremely profitable trade route, was launched. It was also during this period that Brazil, a territory until then unknown to Europeans, was reached due to a fortuitous navigational error (1500). Hence the king’s nickname, the Venturoso, which is an adjetive meaning, the fortunante one.

The construction of the Jerónimos only really began in 1502. It was carried out by different architectural masters, took several decades to built and has since been subjets of several renovations. It is representative of the peak exponent of the Manueline architecture, it contains elements of the late Gothic, the height of the hall-church, for example; Renaissance, in the symmetry and horizontality of the cloister; and of royal, christian and naturalist symbology. Can you identify them? How many armillary spheres, royal shields, crosses of Christ, shells, twisted ropes, and so on, can you find?

The 1755 earthquake did not cause major damage in the Belém area. Despite the height of the Church, as a whole, the Monastery only suffered some damage to the Monastery’s dormitories. It has to do with the quality of the soil. If/when there is another earthquake in Lisbon, you already know where to run. If there’s a tsunami, just make sure you’re on the right side of the train tracks.

With the extinction of religious orders in Portugal, in 1834, the Monastery was handed over to the Real Casa Pia, a social institution dedicated to the education of orphans. More than a thousand children and young people lived here. Well, orphanhood aside, can you imagine being able to say that you lived in the Jerónimos Monastery?

It is said that it was at this time that the famous Pastéis de Belém first appeared. Once the friars were expelled, those who worked in the Monastery had to look for new means subsistance. Someone started selling custard pasteries on the street and, apparently, they gained a following. According to the Pasteis de Belém website, the recipe is still the same today. That they are tasty, it is undeniable. But have you tried the ones from Manteigaria? The door of this patisserie is almost opposite, on the corner, without queues and, according to my mum they are much better.

The Monastery underwent rehabilitation works at the end of the 19th century. There was a “small” hiccup. Someone thought it was a good idea to entrust the works to two scenographers from São Carlos Theater, who clearly had little engineering knowledge. They made plans to make a tower with a clock, but instead, the central tower collapsed.

Another curious detail, the buildings to the west of the Monastery, where the National Museum of Archeology and part of the Maritime Museum are located today, were built in this phase. They are, therefore, of neo-Manueline architecture.

In the last decade of the 80’s, some strange scratches were discovered on a wall of the Church. It is thought that they date back to the construction of the Monastery, made by the architectural master himself. They served as a mold. The master drew on the stone, in full scale, his ideas for the architectural structures and decorative motifs, and thus, the masons had a better insight of what was intended.

The Jerónimos Monastery and the Belém Tower have been classified as World Heritage by UNESCO since 1983.

Here we can find the tombs of:

- Luís Vaz de Camões, greatest poet in the Portuguese language (c. 1524 – c. 1580)
- Vasco da Gama, navigator (1469 – 1524)
- King Manuel I (1469 – 1521) and wife, D. Maria of Castile (1482 – 1517)
- King João III (1502 – c. 1557) and wife, D. Catarina of Austria (1507 – 1578)
- Prelate King Henrique (1554 – 1580)
- King Sebastião (1512 – 1578), only the tomb chest as the King was lost in combat at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir
- Alexandre Herculano, historian, writer and journalist (1816 – 1877)
- Fernando Pessoa, writer and poet (1888 – 1935)

Information:

- Website: Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

References:

- Araújo, N. (1944) Inventário de Lisboa, fascículo 1, CML: Lisboa.
- Beirão, S. (1944) Monumentos de Lisboa, o Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. Revista Municipal, 18 (24-26)
- Giorgetti, G. R. (2022). Contributos para a Valorização Patrimonial do Legado de D. Manuel I, nos 500 Anos da sua Morte. Relatório de Estágio no Mosteiro dos Jerónimos e Torre de Belém. Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa.
- Moita, I. (1994) O Livro de Lisboa. Livros Horizonte: Lisboa. (181-194)
- https://www.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/pt/museus-e-monumentos/dgpc/m/mosteiro-dos-jeronimos/ 23/07/2023.
- https://observador.pt/factchecks/fact-check-restauro-de-mosteiro-dos-jeronimos-destruido-ocorreu-durante-o-estado-novo/ 23/07/2023.
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosteiro_dos_Jerónimos 23/07/2023.
- A big thank you to our amazing proofreader. Custard pasteries are on the way!

Additional Photos:

Website Cover:

Social: