August 2017
The Jerónimos Monastery or Hieronymites Monastery is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal. It became the necropolis of the Portuguese royal dynasty of Aviz in the 16th century but was secularized on 28 December 1833 by state decree and its ownership transferred to the charitable institution, Real Casa Pia de Lisboa. The Jerónimos Monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the late Portuguese Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon. It was erected in the early 1500s near the launch point of Vasco da Gama's first journey, and its construction funded by a tax on the profits of the yearly Portuguese India Armadas. In 1880, da Gama's remains and those of the poet Luís de Camões (who celebrated da Gama's first voyage in his 1572 epic poem, The Lusiad), were moved to new carved tombs in the nave of the monastery's church, only a few meters away from the tombs of the kings Manuel I and John III, whom da Gama had served. In 1983, the Jerónimos Monastery was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(Wikipedia)
High on the list of "must sees" when in Lisbon, was the Jerónimos Monastery in nearby Belém. I had loved everything about Lisbon to that point, but my expectations were in check for the monastery. I had seen LOTS of monasteries and churches. Final resting place of Vasco da Gama caught my interest, but beyond that, I thought it would just be "another old religious structure in Europe". Well, it was that - on steroids. I think the Jerónimos Monastery might be my top monastery in all of Europe (well, at least ones that don't make beer). The architecture and level of ornamentation were unbelievable.
I took an empty morning train and was happy I got an early start because even at opening there was a huge queue. "Wow, " I thought, "this place sure is popular". The rest of the visit I just walked around the complex slack-jawed not even caring that it was mobbed with people. Apparently "Manueline Architecture" was one of the high points of the Gothic style in Europe and heralded the start of the Renaissance. As with Sheikh Muhammed of Dubai who showed the world that with limitless money and labor anything was possible, at the peak of Portuguese commercial dominance in Europe, this monastery was built to show off just what that much money could construct. Opulent was not even a sufficient word. Spices, Chinese silk, and slaves made Portugal for a blink of time in history an incredibly wealthy nation.
For me Jerónimos Monastery was like Caserta Palace outside of Naples - a totally amazing place in Europe that more people should know about, yet don't. I think the monastery is probably less well-known than Caserta. Is part of becoming iconic also being in a place everyone visits? Places like Naples and Lisbon are great cities, but they are not Barcelona, Paris, or Prague. Lisbon pre-COVID had just been discovered [see: Bad Romance], so if it recovers once again to become the next Barcelona or Prague, then perhaps Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Belém will become an instantly recognizable place worldwide. For me, I was happy to have visited before its potential rocket to world fame. The place is simply too stunning to remain on the outer periphery of Europe's "must see" sites.