Lisbon - Sao Bento Estrela and Lapa Travel Guides | Lisbon | Sub Regions | Lisbon - Sao Bento Estrela and Lapa

Lisbon’s western suburbs, a intriguing juxtapostion of the shaggy, the preppy and the posh, are usually glimpsed from the window of Tram 28. The hard-pressed district of São Bento, an old slave enclave, is stained with the bloody imprint of colonial rule. Action centres on rough-hewn Rua do Poço dos Negros, a pile of houses, propped up with scaffolding which unfurl into a web of stepped passageways and which is transformed by night into an enclave of raw African piquancy. The district is dominated by the neoclassical Palácio da Assembléia da República, Lisbon’s parliament building standing astride Avenida Carlos I, the turf of hob-nobbing politicos.

Estrela is dominated by the glistening dome of the marble-clad basilica, a mini-Mafra, plonked amid a tangle of prissy residential streets which skirt the serene oasis of the Jardim da Estrela.

Lisbon’s ambassadors, visiting glitterati, footballers and presidents camp out in well-to-do Lapa. Along Rua da Lapa and Rua do Sacramento, stately mansions crowned with pediments and pillars, flank palatial hotels, romantic villas encased with the frip and whimsy of art nouveau and some of the finest gourmet restaurants in the city.

Sights

Largo da Estrela, 0800-1300, 1500-2000. Free. Tram 25 or 28 from Praça da Figueira.

The Estrela basilica is one of Lisbon’s most important 18th-century religious monuments and most eye-catching landmarks; its majestic white dome crouches surreally around every corner of Estrela’s jumbled backstreets. It was built between 1770 and 1790 by Queen Maria, who was fulfilling a vow to God that she would build a church if she gave birth to a son and heir. Poignantly, the queen did produce an heir but the child died of small pox, aged two, before the church was completed. The two bell towers and elegant rococo dome, marked a return to the flamboyance of the reign of Dom João’s superfluous fluffery, which Pombal had intended to nip in the bud. The classical triangular pediment points to the heavens above a graceful battalion of columns and ornate statues, dominating the church entrance. The baroque style is reminiscent of the convent of Mafra, the work of Mateus, Vicente Ludovice’s disciple, who was also from the School of Mafra. The interior is decorated with pink and black marble, and paintings by Pompeu Botoni and Pedro Alexandrino. Queen Maria’s tomb is in the transept. An imposing presence, Lisbon’s parliament building, Palácio da Assembléia da República on Rua de São Bento, thrusts rather incongruously but with neoclassical ceremonial splendour into São Bento. Built in 1598 as the Mosteiro de São Bento, come the liberal revolution of 1820 and the abolition of the religious orders, it became the capital’s political nerve centre.

Largo da Estrela. 0700-2400. Tram 25 or 28 from Praça da Figueira.

Facing the Basilica da Estrela is Lisbon’s oldest and loveliest garden. A romantic idyll, with winding pathways lined with poplars, palms and clumps of satisfyingly untamed vegetation. A lazy Pre-Raphaelite ambience prevails as students take breaks at open-air cafés, men nod off with crumpled newspapers in hand and elderly ladies are enchanted by the rose gardens. It’s a lovely place for a picnic and for kids to explore. Just behind the gardens, on Rua de São Jorge, Henry Fielding, aged 47, was buried in the English cemetery. He died here in 1754, before completing The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon .

Rua Coelho da Rocha 16-18, T 21 396 81 90, cfpessoa@mail.telepac.pt Mon-Fri 1000-1800, Thu 1300-2000. Free. Bus 9, 20, 38, Tram 25, 28.

Portugal’s beloved and elliptical poet lived here between 1920 and 1935. Languishing in a state of near ruin, it was acquired by the local council who set about restoring it. All that remains of the original construction is the building’s façade and the staircase that leads up to the inner sanctum, Pessoa’s bedroom.

The house now serves more as a cultural centre for the promotion of poetry than as a museum, and it has been ambitiously attempting to acquire Pessoa’s entire literary legacy. Alongside the the poet’s own personal library, there are some 1,200 of Pessoa’s hand-written notebooks, grappling with such themes as the occult and philosophy, as well as a collection of Portuguese and international poetry.

The highlight of a visit is the portrait of Pessoa, ever the sartorial dignitary, painted in 1954 by Portugal’s great modernist artist Almada Negreiros, a great friend of the poet. There is also a study for Mensagem, the only work that was published during his lifetime, which tells the story in verse of the history of Portugal. Experts of Pessoa’s work have determined that Mensagem does not mean ‘message’ but rather is an amalgam of three Latin words meaning, ‘the spirit makes the universe turn’.

Just by the main entrance to the house, Pessoa engraved his own horoscope in stone. He was obsessed by astrology and made a horoscope for everything. He almost discovered the date of his death but the inaccuracy of the hour of his birth apparently misled him by a few months. On the wall of Pessoa’s room is the only portrait of Pessoa painted during his lifetime by Spaniard, Rodriguez Castañe. There is the chest of drawers on which Pessoa claimed to have written the book, in the pseudonym, or heteronym, of Alberto Caeiro, O Guardador de Rabanhos, in one night.

Rua das Janelas Verdes, T 21 39 12 800. Wed-Sun 1000-1245, 1400-1800. Tue 1400-1800. E3. Tram E25 from Praça do Comercio.

The National Museum of Ancient Art, also known as the Museu das Janelas Verdes, is housed in the former 17th-century palace of Dom Francisco de Távora, Count of Alvor. Alongside the Gulbenkian, this exceptional museum contains the most important collection of 14th-20th century Portuguese art in the country, including paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. The Saint Albert Carmelite convent formed part of the palace and the dazzling baroque chapel, with its profusion of azulejo tiles and gilded wood, has been preserved and can also be visited.

Originally created in 1884, the museum was intended to house the great works of art, appropriated by the state from convents and monasteries across Portugal when religious orders were abolished in 1834. Displayed over three floors, European art is well represented and there is an enlightening display of decorative arts from Portugal’s colonies. There is an impressive collection of 16th- century masterpieces from the Portuguese school: Francisco Henríques, Gregório Lopes, and 17th-century artists, including Domingos António de Sequeira (1768-1834) and Josefa de Obidos.

In room 57, is one of the collection’s unquestionable highlights; the rather blood-curdling, narrative triptych of the Temptation of Saint Anthony, attributed to Hieronymus Bosch.

On the third floor, room 11, and hailed as Portugual’s most important work of art, is the narrative polyptych of the Veneration of Saint Vincent by Nuno Gonçalves, royal painter at the court of Afonso V in the 15th century, and clearly of Flemish influence. Of great historical interest, the six panels in violet and white shades, characteristic of Gonçalves, portray the 58 notable Portuguese figures of the second half of the 15th century. King Afonso V, Queen Isabel, merchants, sailors, explorers and clerics show their devotion to their patron saint, within the context of the crusades of the Avis Dynasty. The artist makes a cameo appearance and Prince Henry the Navigator is thought to feature (the figure wearing a dark hat with a serpentine moustache), this being particularly revealing as no authenticated portrait of the discover has ever been unearthed.

Further crowd pleasers are the two 16th-century Japanese screens, impressive examples of Namban art and rare 18th-century silverware by French silversmiths Thomas and François Germain. There are important Flemish tapestries by Dürer, including the portrait of São Jerónimo, in room 57 floor 1 and works by Holbein.

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