Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/715

 LISBON 691 strangers; the shops present little display, and are ill furnished with wares. The markets are tolerably well supplied with meat, fish, and country produce. A large quantity of excellent fruit is brought in for sale during the season. The king usually resides at the palace of Ajuda, situate on a hill above the suburb of Belem. It is in the Italian style, and was intended to be one of the largest palaces in Europe, but it has been left incomplete. It contains a large library, a collection of pictures, and a numismatic cabinet. There is another royal palace at Lisbon (that of the Neces- sidades), where former monarchs were wont to reside ; and in the neighbourhood of the city are numerous others. Several of the nobility have good and spacious houses in the city, which are dignified with the name of palaces. The houses of the British residents are mostly to be found in the elevated district called Buenos Ayres. Two or three small forts, one on a rock at the mouth of the Tagus, afford a very inadequate defence against the attacks of a hostile fleet. In ascending the river the picturesque Tower of Belem, built about the end of the 15th century, is seen on the north bank close to the water s edge. On a rocky hill stands the citadel of St George, surrounded by the most ancient part of Lisbon, composed of narrow tortuous streets, still retaining its old Moorish name, Alfarna. The chief naval and military arsenals of the kingdom are at Lisbon. Attached to the former are a naval school and a hydrographical office. Here also is a museum of colonial products. In various parts of the city are barracks for the accommodation of the FIG. 1. Plan of Lisbon. troops and for the municipal guard. The churches are numerous, but are nearly all in the same tasteless Italian style ; the interiors, overlaid by heavy ornament, contain pictures utterly devoid of merit. The cathedral is gloomy without being grand, but the oldest part behind the high altar may deserve inspection. The largest church in the city is St Vincent s, 222 feet by 82. The large adjacent convent is now the residence of the cardinal patriarch. In a modern chapel attaehed to the church the coffined corpses of the monarchs of the house of Braganza are deposited, and the public are admitted to see them on certain days in the year. Perhaps the most striking church in Lisbon itself is that of the Estrella, with a dome commanding an extensive view, and two towers, the whole design reminding the visitor of St Paul s, London. At St Roque is the famous chapel of St John the Baptist, designed by Vanvitelli, and made at Rome for King John V., who had been enriched by the discovery of the gold and diamond mines in Brazil. Before being sent to Portugal it was set up in St Peter s, and Benedict XIV. celebrated the first mass in it. It is composed of precious marbles with mosaics and ornaments in silver and bronze, and is said to have cost upwards of 120,000. By far the most interesting architectural object at Lisbon is, however, the unfinished Hieronymite church and monastery at Belem. The church was begun in 1500 near the spot where Vasco da Gama had embarked three years before on his famous voyage to India. The style is a curious mixture of Moorish Gothic and Renaissance, with beautiful details. The English college was founded in 1628 for the education, of British Roman Catholics ; and the Irish Dominicans have a church and convent originally established for the educa-