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Belem Tower
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Belem's Tower, the old fortress.

This fortification is one of the most emblematic and beloved monuments by the people of Lisbon and a place from which there are interesting views.

The Belem’sTower is located on the old Restelo beach, in the Santa Maria de Belém neighborhood to the southwest of Lisbon, on the banks of the Tagus River.

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Visits in Lisbon

When was the fortification created?

Built in the Age of Discoveries, its mission was to protect the entrance to the port from where the Portuguese vessels departed on their expeditions to other continents.

 

The construction of the fortification, during the reign of Manuel I of Portugal, began in 1516 and ended in 1520 and is the work of the military architect Francisco de Arruda, guided by Diogo Boitaca.

 

Implicitly with this construction came the creation of the figure of the Governor of the Belem’s Tower, the first of whom was Gaspar de Paiva.

Get to know the Belem Tower in Lisbon

How is the outside

At the entrance, a model reproduces the monument. Declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1983, this peculiar tower is Manueline style, with Islamic and oriental influences, it breaks the medieval tradition of the keep. 

 

Belem’s Tower is sculpted from local limestone in light tones and has open galleries, cylindrical towers with Mozarabic-style domes.

Visit to the Torre de Belem

Inside

The structure is made up of two elements: the tower and the bastion. The entrance to the building is through the bastion, through a walkway. Inside there are some sculptures of the patron saint of Lisbon, San Vicente. 

 

The tower that reaches 35 meters in height is made up of five floors, three of them connected by a small spiral staircase. The first three floors correspond to the Governor’s Room, the Audience Room and the Sala dos Reis, on the fourth level there is a chapel and on the last one a terrace.

What to see in Lisbon

The rhinoceros

On the west facade you can see a stone gargoyle with the image of a rhinoceros that commemorates the appearance of this animal in Lisbon in 1515. The fact is that the Governor of the Indies Alfonso de Alburquerque gave an elephant and a rhino to King Manuel I. 


This rhinoceros that an unknown artist described in a sketch served as inspiration for the painter Albrecht Dürer to create the woodcut with the name Rhinoceros by Dürer.


To put some but to the visit, keep in mind that when there are many people visiting the Tower you will find traffic jams on the spiral staircases that connect each of the floors.

How to get

How is Belem's Tower

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