Dr. Eric Conway writes:
We
only had one full day in Lisbon, Portugal to see the many sites of this
country. We knew that we were certain to see the top tourist
attractions in Lisbon and learn about the history of the region.
Portugal
is a small country in size, about the same size as Indiana. Despite
the size, due to half of the country being adjacent to the Atlantic, the
country played an important part in the westward expansion of Europe.
Although, Columbus is credited with discovering America, both tour
guides stated that the Portuguese sailed west to the Americas prior to
Columbus and knew of the North and South American continents. Our
Portuguese guide said that the sailors hoped to sail to North America
but, due to wind and weather ended up in South America (Brazil). We all
in America could have been speaking Portuguese in America, rather than
English!
The one
significant piece of Portuguese history that we did not know was that in
1755, there was an earthquake that destroyed virtually all of Lisbon
and much of the coast of Portugal. Much like California in the United
States, Portugal is on the edge of the continent next to a major ocean.
Earthquakes, although not as frequent as in California, occur and are
severe. On All Saint’s Day, November 1, 1755, an earthquake hit
Portugal that killed over 60,000 persons. Due to the religious holiday,
candles were lit for the dead in most of the homes. After to the
earthquake, a massive fire occurred what did was not extinguished for
ten days. As often is the case with earthquakes, an hour or so later, a
huge tsunami hit Portugal with thirty meter waves in Lagos, and fifteen
meter waves in Lisbon. How tragic! The entire southern part of
Portugal had to rebuild. Most of the history of the region was
destroyed. Most of the buildings in Lisbon were built in
the eighteen century. There was not a tour guide that we met who did
not mention this tragedy as though it happened just last year.
Our
first stop was to the town of Belém (Bethlehem) which is close to
Lisbon. There, we visited three of the top attractions in Portugal:
the Jerónimo's Monastery, the Belém Tower and which houses much of the
history of Portugal and Monument of the Discoveries. The Monastery was
significant because it had some of the greatest Gothic architecture in
Portugal. Because of where this monastery was situated, it suffered
little structural damage from the earthquake, which was good for
Portugal to retain some of their history.
We
then walked to the Belém Tower which was built to protect the city of
Lisbon. When it was built, it was fifty yards or so in the Tagus river,
however, due to the river water receding over the years, the Tower was about 10 meters from dry land. We
then walked to the Monument of the Discoveries, built to celebrate the
Portuguese Age of Discovery when their ships travelled to the Orient and
India.
It
was now time to go the site of our concert at a former Portuguese
Palace - the Palacio de Ayuda. Prior to our concert we took an
extensive tour of yet another castle. Portugal, like Spain, had
monarchs for many years prior to changing to a republic. The palace is
now used for official state dinners of the President. We realized that
it was quite an honor for the Morgan choir to perform in
a structure such as this. In fact, the room where our concert was
scheduled, is similar to the White House East Wing, where the
Portuguese President will give major announcements and share news of the
public.
Given
that we will leave for home the following day, our final concert was
earlier in the day at 4PM. The room was completely filled. I could not
try my Spanish out on this audience, as those who were
in attendance spoke Portuguese, so our guide superbly translated for me.
We believed that we had a great final concert, as the room was a
perfect room for music-making.
After
the concert, we drove to our group farewell dinner. Given that we had
so very much pork in Spain, we were pleased to see that the main course
was Salmon or Cod fish from Norway!
We
were to leave as early as 4AM, the next day for nineteen hours of
travel back home. During the dinner, we were almost preoccupied with
the task of packing and possibly not sleeping as to not miss our plane.
We had a great day in Lisbon. See photos attached.
EC
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