Page 59 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Lisbon

BAIRRO AL T O AND ESTRELA  57

q Museu Nacional playwright who died in
de Arte Antiga Lisbon at the age of 47. The
Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon,
See pp58–61. published post humously
in 1775, recounts his last
voyage to Portugal, made in
w Jardim da Estrela a fruitless attempt to recover
his failing health.
Praça da Estrela. Map 4 D2. @ 720,
738. v 25, 28. q Rato. Open 7am–
midnight daily.
Laid out in the middle of the
19th century, opposite the
Basílica da Estrela, the popular
gardens are a focal part of
the Estrela quarter. Local
Attractive wrought-iron music pavilion in families congregate here at
Jardim da Estrela weekends to feed the ducks The tomb of the pious Maria I in the
0 Palácio de and carp in the lake, sit at the Basílica da Estrela
waterside café or wander
São Bento among the flower beds, e Basílica da Estrela
plants and trees. The formal
Largo das Cortes, Rua de São Bento. Praça da Estrela. Map 4 D2. Tel 213
Map 4 E2. Tel 213 919 000. @ 790. gardens are planted with 960 915. @ 720, 738. v 25, 28.
v 28. Open by appt only. 8 last Sat herbaceous borders and Open 7:45am–1pm, 4–8pm Mon;
of the month, at 3pm & 4pm; call 213 shrubs surrounding plane trees 7:45am–1pm, 3–8pm Tue–Sat;
919 620. ∑ parlamento.pt and elms. The central feature 8am–1pm, 3–8pm Sun (mass 9am)
of the park is a green wrought- (large groups by appointment). 5
Also known as the Assembleia iron bandstand, decorated
da República, this massive with elegant filigree, where In the second half of the
white Neo-Classical building musicians strike up in the 18th century Maria I (see p111),
started life in the late 1500s as summer months. This was built daughter of José I, vowed she
the Benedictine monastery of in 1884 and originally stood would build a church if she
São Bento. After the dissolution on the Passeio Público, before bore a son and heir to the
of the religious orders in 1834, the creation of Avenida da throne. Her wish was granted
the building became the seat Liberdade (see p46). and construction of the basilica
of the Portuguese Parliament, The English Cemetery to began in 1779. Her son José,
known as the Palácio das the north of the gardens is however, died of smallpox two
Cortes. The interior is suitably best known as the burial years before the completion of
grandiose with marble pillars place of Henry Fielding (1707– the church in 1790. The huge
and Neo-Classical statues. 54), the English novelist and domed basilica, set on a hill in
the west of the city, is one of
Lisbon’s great landmarks. A
simpler version of the basilica
at Mafra (see p98), this church
was built by architects from the
Mafra School in late Baroque
and Neo-Classical style. The
façade is flanked by twin bell
towers and decorated with an
array of statues of saints and
allegorical figures.
The spacious, awe-inspiring
interior, where light streams
down from the pierced dome,
is clad in grey, pink and yellow
marble. The elaborate Empire-
style tomb of Queen Maria I,
who died in Brazil, lies in the
right transept. Locked in a
room nearby is Machado de
Castro’s extra ordinary Nativity
scene, composed of over 500
cork and terracotta figures. To
Neo-Classical façade and stairway of Palácio de São Bento see it, ask the sacristan.

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