Page:Lisbon and Cintra, Inchbold, 1907.djvu/81

Rh the seas of India. To immortalize the grand event D. Manuel caused a superb monastery to be erected on the site of Prince Henry's little chapel at Restello. The King changed the name of the locality to Belem, or Bethlehem, and gave the new edifice to the monks of the Order of St Jerome, whence the name of the Jeronymos. In 1500 D. Manuel laid the first stone with great ceremony, the work progressed rapidly, built with the white stone obtained in the quarries of Estremadura, of so supple a quality that it admits of the most delicate carving, and yet so durable that the long, magnificent line of buildings facing the Tagus shows no trace of age beyond the mellow golden hue imparted by weather and time to the vast exterior. Owing to its erection on piles of pinewood the monastery suffered only small damage in the earthquake. The Portuguese consider the work their most finished example of Manueline architecture. The south door shows a marvellous variety of richly sculptured ornamentations. It is divided in two by a column which supports a statue of Prince Henry the Navigator, or, some assert, of Vasco da Gama. Right and left are figures of the twelve Apostles, with carved canopies overshadowing them. Above the door is the Virgin with twelve other saints while over all watches the Archangel Michael. Slender shafts, separating every one of this array of carved figures, climb like delicate stalactites in ascending grade each side of the porch to the topmost effigy. The exuberant decoration of the entrance door scarcely prepares one for the noble simplicity of the interior which possesses a distinction, a singular beauty of its own, not easily forgotten.

The tall, slender columns with their curious sculpture assume strange and lovely colouring of varied hues from every point of the interior. Gracefully curved ribs, bossed at every intersection, spring out from the high 55