The Castelo de Sao Jorge continued.

The Castelo de San Jorge is in the Santa Cruz district of Lisbon, a charming area of cobbled streets and alleyways packed tightly within the walls of the old castle.

if you can see beyond the obvious tourist trappings it is a fascinating area and one we didn't really have time to explore properly. It is becoming a bit of a mental exercise to add things to the "must return " list, but  return we will.

There was a small music shop specialising in Fado records. I bought a couple of postcards, 50cents each and the lady who owned the shop carefully wrapped them for me. I must go back and buy a cd or two!
Like a lot of Lisbon the buildings have a slightly run down feel, after a while I began to think that it added to their charm in a way, almost like they were organic and grew in this crowded hodge podge, spilling over and under each other.

Some of the squares are very elegant with tiled facades and cool cafes. After deciphering the security guys map we discovered the best free view in Lisbon, just as he had said, on the terrace of the Miradouro de Santa Luzia, This is a fantastic spot to have a coffee and sit under the shade of the Bourganvillia by the church of the same name.

The views over the Tagus and the Alfama district are breathtaking, The gardens extend out from the south wall of the church .

The gardens have two tiled panels, one depicting the Praca de Commercio before the earthquake and the one that Lynne is looking at , which shows the  Christians attacking the Castelo de San Jorge.

The Church of Santa Luzia is also on the route of the famous number 28 tram. This is a great way of seeing the city, and to be honest I still cant quite believe that it gets up the steep hills! it does.

The terraces and gardens Just below the church are home to artists and musicians and we enjoyed a free guitar recital  (Fado of course ) as we had a drink by the pool.

The Alfama district is a steep maze of bars, shops and restaurants. It is quite a trendy place and we popped in to visit some of the quirky shops on our way down towards the cathedral. Walking down from the top to the bottom is by far the best way to explore the area by the way!

The Cathedral is known as Sé, which is short for Sedes Episcopalis, or see of the Bishop. The fascade is solid and square Romanesque.

The interior is to be honest a bit gloomy.

 As it was late in the day and you had to pay to see some of the Cathedral ( the cloisters and treasury) we decided to put it on the return list.

I don't know if Lynne was trying to overcome the gloomy interior but she decided to light a candle. I think possibly it was because you could light an actual candle and not just a wee electric light,
it could also have been the particular saint I'm afraid I cant remember who it was.
The dark interior is however enlightened a little by stained glass.

The crowning glory of which is the Rose window above the entrance.

There is a side chapel which displays Bishops robes and mitres and in contrast to the rather plain body of the Cathedral is richly decorated in typical Portuguese style.

However if you walk just around the corner from the Cathedral in a small square lies the Church of Santo António a Sé.

This allegedly stands on the site of the house where St Antony was born and after admiring the knave and altar,

Its possible to walk through a side passage leading to a beautiful tiled sacristy, past many silver representations of various saints to a stairwell which descends to the crypt.

On the way down you pass a modern azulejo panel which depicts and commemorates Pope John Pauls visit in 1982 and shows him praying in the crypt below.

This is obviously still a place of some reverence and is apparently popular with newly weds who visit the church on their wedding day and leave flowers for St Antony which will bring good luck to the marriage. As Saint Antony has helped to find several lost things for me I have no reason to disbelieve this.

It is very small however and somewhat claustrophobic as seems to be the case for these things. The crypt is supposedly on the very spot of St Antony's birth.

St Antony is a patron saint of Portugal and being born and raised in Lisbon is very popular here. The 13th June sees major celebrations in the city, the date of his death in Padua Italy.
It had been a very full day and we decided it was time to get the bus back to Dark tarn and plan our next outing into this fascinating city.

Castelo de sao Jorge-Lisbon

After a day or so of returning to Lisbon we decided to attack the tourist heights literally and visit the castle of saint George. On the way uphill we passed an artists outdoor installation.

We had already figured out the Metro stop we needed but hadn't actually worked out how to find the entrance to the restored Moorish castle. luckily we found a very helpful security guard who gave us a beautifully illustrated, hand drawn,  map. Unfortunately it was in Portuguese, which meant it was virtually useless.....they are masters of obfuscation.
I offer the map itself below, the small "L" shaped object, right of centre is the whole castle, beyond that it is, a mystery .

Non the less up is always up, so up was where we went and after going through some colourful neighbourhoods we eventually arrived at the entrance to the old  ( or fairly recently restored castle)

This is the Porta de San Jorge, and just through the entrance portal was a statue of the man himself. St George, patron Saint of England, either a Turk or Greek he was a roman soldier who refused to renounce Christianity and was beheaded. I believe the naming of the castle comes from the first Anglo Portuguese alliance. The small plaque however referes to st George as the "Protector of Portugal", another mystery?

After paying our entrance fee we walked onto the large terrace on the western side of the castle walls.

The views over the city are worth the money alone and we decided to eat a picnic lunch while overlooking the view of the old town, the Tagus and the 25 April bridge.

This is a fantastic spot from which to view the city. It is easy to see why the moors built a castle here originally, there are steep defendable heights to the north and the castle is built on a rock base that would be difficult to undermine.

Nonetheless after resisting armies and assaults it succumbed to the great earthquake of 1775 and after numerous rebuilds, it was largely a military base before being rebuilt and restored during 1938-40 under the fascist Salazar regime. Hence the present imposing structure is in fact a reconstruction.

The Castle is visible from almost anywhere in the city of Lisbon, so it is almost incumbent to pay it a visit, and the views are certainly worthwhile in fact one of the best views is from the Torre do Haver (Tower of Riches ) so called because of the fact it was the treasury. It has another name the tumbling tower due to it being the archive of records and they would tumble "tombo" into it. Today it houses a Camera Obscura.

There can be seen a real time image of the city below projected on a circular hemispherical table. the periscope and lens housing can be seen in the photo below.

Another notable feature of the grounds, apart from the two delightful American ladies we got chatting to, are Peacocks. They can occasionally fly, or should I say plummet from the trees giving you a bit of a surprise. I for one had no idea they could plummet.

There is also an extensive area of archeological digs that are only available to view as part of a timed tour, we didn't have time to wait so had to miss out.

During the reconstruction levels were unearthed going back beyond the moors and Romans to stone age times. a good defensive site has always been valuable it seems.

We walked around the battlements

and eventually found the small museum.

This is housed in the "Palace tower" and houses a lot of artefacts unearthed during the reconstruction.

It is very well presented, most of the artefacts having Portuguese/English information displayed.

There is a lot of Roman and Phoenician artifacts which tell the story of Lisbon as a major trading centre predating a lot of cities including London.

Later in the afternoon we had a few minutes to contemplate the view over the river Tagus before heading down the hill and back home. For a minute or two in my minds eye I could see the Phoenician trading vessels and the Roman war galleys, the Carracks and Caravels of the Great age of exploration, the royal naval ships of the line supplying Wellington and the Peninsular campaign. The river had seen them all. The Castle may be a reconstruction but it was, as far as I could ascertain, accurate and sympathetic. Now if only the Portuguese could be persuaded to signpost it!

In comparison to some of the places we had walked around the Castelo San Jorge was basically a reconstruction of what once was and in some respects less than overwhelming, but the views are fabulous and with a little imagination the missing pieces will fall into place. It is also the only place that Lynne and I have sat on cork furniture (as above )

Or pretend to fire a 17th century canon (as below)

Fatima

Our accommodation at Batalha was only 15 kilometres from the famous shrine of Fatima.
On the 13th of May 1917 three children had seen a vision of our lady, she told the children to return to the same spot on the same day for six months. By the end of this time there were thousands of people gathering at the site of the apparition. The name of the newspaper below incidentally is "The Century" in Portugese.

I am very much a secular person and until I had actually visited the shrine and seen the other people visiting I would have been fairly sceptical of visions and prophecies, however having now seen the place and more importantly the penitents, celebrants or pilgrims known here as "Peregrinos"  I feel I understand a little more. Regardless of the personalities and politics involved in the story, It seems to me it is about a single, incredibly powerful thing, and that is.....Faith.

The Portuguese writing  above is saying "I believe!" . On the 13th of October 1917, six months after the initial vision occurred many had gathered and witnessed the Miracle of the sun, where many people reported colours distortions and strange effects occurring, along with more spiritual visions. The photograph was taken around the time of the original apparitions. Not by me I might add! At the time Fatima was a small village surrounded by rocky fields. and pine trees. I have neither time or space to tell the history of events leading to our present but suffice to say,
It has now been transformed

The pine trees and indeed the sun remain, however it now has become the biggest site of pilgrimage in Europe, and rivals Lourdes for popularity. It is simply vast.The open plaza below which sits the Basilica is twice the size of St Peters square in Rome.

The Basilica of our Lady of the Rosary which stands at the bottom of the square has long outgrown its congregation and now a large circular building the Basilica of the Holy Trinity is used for larger services. It is very modern and no doubt serviceable. However I find the large rosary suspended between two pillars to be a little questionable aesthetically......

On entering the building, (its not obviously a church until you are through the final doors) you are presented with a large auditorium, thousands of people could sit here, there is a surprising amount of light comes through angled glass louvres in the roof. As a conference space its superb as a place of worship less so in my humble opinion.

The golden fresco behind the altar is very subtle but is somewhat lost in the vast space. It is all a little impersonal. Its an impressive piece of modern architecture and I wouldn't like to guess at the cost of all the polished limestone and marble that went into its construction. To be fair in this regard I suspect that Fatima is a victim of its own success. After all, how on earth do you accommodate thousands of people?

The Basilica of our Lady of the Rosary stands on the opposite end of the Plaza and is an imposing edifice, it is flanked on either side by colonnaded wings that are topped by statues of saints, it fairly gleams in the sunlight, the bright white  frontage broken only by colourful frescos housed in arches behind the columns and a golden crown on top of the bell tower, which incidentally can ring loud enough to make you jump and does so every 15 minutes or so.

There is a small garden off to one side which has statues of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the two youngest children who died in the flu epidemic of 1918-19. Their tombs are in the Basilica.

The remaining child Lucia Abobora, later renamed Lucia de Jesus de dos Santos, died in 2005 at the age of 97. She became a nun and her written memoirs and of course the famous "three secrets" became internationally famous.

We approached the Basilica not quite knowing what to expect, it is in fact a very elegant and surprisingly plainly decorated church for Portugal

There are 15 altars within the church dedicated to the 15 mysteries of the Rosary. Above the altar is a picture of our Lady visiting the children. The figure of the Bishop on the bottom left is I believe the Bishop of Liera. It was he who declared the miracle `worthy of belief ` in 1930. There are several Popes in the top right of the picture. An unusual alterpiece. A statue of our Lady of Fatima is on a plinth on the right, there are several statues one of which the Pilgrim Statue has travelled the world.

The stained glass windows show various scenes about the apparitions.

This is the tomb of St Francisco, St Jacinta's tomb is on the opposite side of the altar.
The real heart of the site is undoubtedly the chapel of the Apparitions. an open air chapel built on the very spot of the appearance of our Lady to the children.

The original small chapel built by the villagers is represented within and the famous statue in a glass case stands on the exact spot that our Lady appeared.

Pilgrims approach and pray from behind the small chapel within a chapel and do a circuit for which a handrail is provided most pilgrims also seem to value the help of a friend.

There is a marble pathway known as the Pilgrims Way that runs from the Basilica of the Holy Trinity to the Chapel of Apparitions. The faithful approach the Chapel on their knees. It is highly polished. The path continues past the Basilica and becomes the Holy Way passing 14 tiny chapels representing the stations of the cross.

Behind the Chapel is a place to light a candle. Initially I was utterly confused as to what this could be as it was marked  by huge plumes of smoke. I approached and realised that rather than a small rack of candle holders with a smattering of lit candles this was in fact an inferno of wax.

The melting candles were pooling and were a roaring blaze. It didn't seem to put anyone off attempting to place yet more candles.
The atmosphere at the Chapel of the Apparitions was very humbling. Although I am not comfortable with some of the more overt acts of dedication I can admire the expression of faith they represent.

Beneath the ground of the vast Plaza are several chapels and exhibition spaces, we walked around an exhibition of art that represented The light of Fatima in the modern world. It was called The Colours of the Sun, presumably in reference to the miracle of 1917.

It was actually very good indeed, and also had a small exhibition of the history of the site. It included several models of the buildings including the site as it is now. (below left)showing the Plaza, two Basilicas and Chapel of the Apparitions just near the statue centre of Plaza. There was also a model of the Basilica of the Holy Trinity showing the circular shape and louvered roof, along with some of the underground chapels.

Hidden away at one side of the main Plaza was a strange find for me, a section of the Berlin Wall. I was a bit confused until I later discovered that one of the secrets referred to Russia and allegedly the fall of communism was prophesied. I prefer to think it celebrates peace and reunification.

 By this time we had walked for miles and we made our way back towards the huge car park having spent no money at all, which was surprising as we had a preconception that the opposite would be the case. We were pleasantly surprised. Which pretty much sums up my attitude to the experience. I found it affirming and positive. It apparently is visited by four million pilgrims a year and for me this is what the real Fatima is. I have seen the reaction to a visit by a three foot tall statue in a small town in Galicia. multiply that worldwide and we are talking about something that is difficult to ignore.

 The original time of the miracle and the subsequent building of the first small chapel was not supported by the church it was purely the people who by stubborn belief carried the whole thing forward. It is now in some respects a very different thing bigger, grander, the whole panoply of church, but in any meaningful sense it still is what it was.

People believing in miracles.........

A bit of video from the day....