As far as we here at BmL are concerned, this is a goddamn holy site. The mother ship. The mother lode.
The mother of all fortalezas.
All BmListas verdadeiras must - at least once - make the pilgrimage.
This is Torre de Belem.
In the pre-dawn gloom, Os Capitãos take early service in the Capella near Mosteiro dos Jerónimos - the final resting place of da Gama and Camões. They then pray to the Virgin of Safe Homecoming on the Torre that these are not their last steps on Portuguese soil, and board the thousand caravels of the great Age of Discovery.
From 1515 on, they will all hoist sail here, by the Torre, on the Tagus, in Lisbon. This Manueline masterpiece was first fort, then prison under the Espanhois *spits* (who call it "belem", when every true son knows its pronounced "blengggg") - customs house, barracks - but always, always a symbol of Os Navegados.
Built 1515-1521, UNESCO listed in 1983. Take off your tricorn, Lt Amilcar, where do you think you're at?
11 comments:
Outstanding. I trust you sampled the tarts and ate some pastries.
I know. Its...beautiful. As though I am walking in pure light.
*Drops pastel de natas - and salutes*
As you were, soldier.
[pays homage]
Duly and solemnly noted.
Now let's get hammered at Bairro Alto - for tomorrow we ride.
Espanhois *spits*
Ah, come on, Esquerdista.
You know, under the highly underrated Hapsburgs, the Iberian Peninsula was probably at its intellectual and political peak.
You've got to admit that (apart from the current one, and we'll assess him in 30 years time) the Bourbons haven't exactly been a success.
Certainly its geopolitical peak - has any empire ever been as vast as the Iberian Union?
However, Portugal also got to enjoy all of Spain's enemies for 60 years, viz, England; and lose the North of Brazil to the Dutch. Plus they started replacing the Portuguese nobles in the Cortes with Castillians by the 1630s. Its not remembered fondly.
Well they oughtn't to have bailed out of the Hispanic experiment so swiftly, should they?
España una, grande y libre, etc. etc.
The Iberian Union probably fielded a kickass world cup team!
(Showing all the pragmatism of a Holandes, my money's on Spain for 2010, of course.;-)
"You know, under the highly underrated Hapsburgs, the Iberian Peninsula was probably at its intellectual and political peak. "
Yah, but they couldn't keep their hands off their cousins. Not much of a zenith here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Charles_II_%281670-80%29.jpg
Never fish off the company pier.
Hey just because your family tree looks like a Gaelic knot doesn't mean your dynasty can't produce beautiful culture and magnificent war.
Just shows what hiring good advisors can do, when you're an inbred monarch.
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