Page:Lisbon and Cintra, Inchbold, 1907.djvu/52

Rh past. The Largo do Contador Mor, or chief treasurer, excites curiosity in its origin. Upward winds the street called Saudade, that tender Portuguese word expressive of regret and longing for the absent as impossible to render in one English word as its German equivalent, sehnsucht. At a tiny square is read the name Portas do Sol; it is the Largo of the Gates of the Sun, a secluded little quadrant on the hill below the gateway of that name in the ancient fortress, or palace of Moorish caliphs, or perhaps going back to the days of those fervent sun worshippers, the Romans.

The Castello of S. Jorge is of no military value to-day, but its history and panoramic view from the height still draw attention to the spot. It was built apparently in the time of Julius Cæsar, and strengthened and greatly enlarged by the Moors who from its high walls offered the chief resistance to the besiegers under D. Affonso Henriques. Tradition has recorded the story that every effort made by the combined forces of Portuguese and Crusaders would have failed had it not been for the heroic self-sacrifice of a soldier named Martim Moniz whose bravery has been recited through the centuries. When the Moors withdrew through a gateway by which they had made a vigorous but bootless sally, this soldier placed himself in the entrance to prevent the total closing of the gate; the opening created by his crushed body was an ingress for the conquering hosts. Over the ancient archway of the closed gate still preserved in the thick walls is a rude bust with inscription and date, 1147, put there in 1646, by a descendant of the hero, Conde de Castel-Melhor. The fortress possessed three towers, of Ulysses, Albarram, and Managem, but every trace of them disappeared in 1755. The Castello was rebuilt and enlarged by Portuguese kings as far down as D. Sebastião, and it was the 30