BELÉM TOWER
Lisbon, Portugal
In the late 15th Century John II of Portugal designed a series of defences along the Tagus river outside of Lisbon’s city centre. Two fortresses were constructed on the south side of the River and then John’s son, Manuel I, finished off work by adding in the Belém Tower on the north side.
The actual construction of the Tower was very quickly done, between 1515 and 1521. It is said that the Tower was originally constructed in the centre of the Tagus River on a small island which then became on the shoreline after the disastrous 1755 earthquake destroyed half of Lisbon. It seems more likely that the island was only a few metres out into the River and that the shoreline has progressively encroached on it to the extent that now a small footbridge is all that’s needed to reach it.
The Tower continued in use as a fortress until 1580. The last occasion being when the Spanish attempted to invade Lisbon. After this date the Tower took on that normal function for old castles – that of a prison. It was notorious as a prison.
All of this was in a sorry state when it was repaired at the behest of Queen Maria II in 1845. The restored tower is rather over-decorated and a bit too twee to be realistic, none of which stopped it being declared a National Monument in 1907 and in 1983 it, together with the nearby Jeronimos Monastery, was added to the UNESCO Heritage list.
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2018
