Page 214 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

24 builders of Batalha (p172). The
interior, by contrast, is light
Guarda and graceful. The 100 carved
figures high on the altarpiece
! F3 £ @ n Praça Luís de in the chancel were worked
Camões; 271 205 530
by Jean de Rouen in 1552.
Spread over a bleak hill on the Set out over two floors, the
northeast flank of the Serra Museu da Guarda takes you
on a trip through the history
da Estrela, Guarda is the coun­
EXPERIENCE The Beiras (3,465 ft). Founded in 1199 by to the present day. On display
try’s highest city, at 1,056 m
of the region from prehistory
are paintings, archaeological
Sancho I, the city’s original
discoveries and a section on
role as frontier guard explains
the city’s own poet, Augusto
its name and its rather forbid­
Gil (1873–1929).
ding countenance. Some of its
arcaded streets and squares
From the cathedral square,
are lively, but the fortress­like
Sé, with its flying buttresses,
the 17th­century Miseri córdia
church. Inside the orna mental
pinnacles and gargoyles, Rua do Comércio leads down to
could never be described as portal are Baroque altars and
lovely. Master architects who pulpits. Just north of the
worked on the cathedral, cathedral, in the historic town
begun in 1390 and completed centre, is the 18th­century
in 1540, included Diogo Boitac church of São Vicente, which
(from 1504 to 1517) and the has 16 elaborate azulejo panels
depicting the life of Christ.
Guarda used to support a
thriving Jewish community,
which was founded in the
Did You Know? beginning of the 13th century.
History records that João I, on Statue of navigator Pedro
The Portuguese a visit to Guarda, was smitten Álvares Cabral, associated
named Brazil after the by Inês Fernandes, the beau­ with Belmonte
wood that they found tiful daughter of a Jewish
there – Brasil. shoemaker. From their liaison
a son, Afonso, was born. In Bragança was bestowed on
1442 the title of first Duke of Afonso, and 200 years later his
descendant would take the
throne as João IV, first of the
Bragança monarchs (p248).
Museu da Guarda
" ⌂ Rua Alves Roçadas 30
§ 271 213 460 # 10am–6pm
Tue–Sun ¢ 1 Jan, Easter,
1 May, 25 Dec
25
Belmonte
! F3 £ @ n Castelo de
Belmonte; 275 911 488
Belmonte was for generations
the fiefdom of the heroic
Cabral family. Pedro Álvares

Pedestrianized street
close to the cathedral
in Guarda
214

214-215_EW_Portugal.indd 214 20/09/2018 10:41

EW Catalogue template v3.0 – 12th July 2018
Fonts: Aptifer Sans LT Pro, Posterama Text, Soho Gothic
Pro, Soho Pro, ITC Caslon 224