Text
provided by the Portuguese Tourist Office (with minimal
corrections)
The Torre de Belém is a beautiful and original monument,
unrivalled in the whole world. Its harmonious and distinctive
shape is sharply outlined against the sky and the water
of the River Tagus, and the delicate decoration of its stone
suggests to those who feast their eyes upon it the appearance
of a finely carved jewel. It was, however, seen differently
by those living at the time of its construction, for whom
the tower was a formidable and fearsome defensive fortress
at the entrance to the river estuary, which was the function
that its founder D. Manuel I had intended fort.
As happens with the nearby Mosteiro dos Jerónimos,
the memories evoked by the Torre de Belém are associated
with the era of the Discoveries. Belém is an area
that is full of memories from Portuguese history, for it
was also from here that Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral
took off in their sea plane Lusitânia in 1922, heading
for Rio de Janeiro to complete the first ever air crossing
of the South Atlantic. The tower was built on a basalt island
located close to the right bank of the Tagus, opposite the
beach at Restelo, but, with the progressive southward creeping
of the shore over the years, it is now practically ''moored''
to the bank itself. Construction began in 1514 under the
supervision of the architect Francisco de Arruda. By 1520,
it was complete, and ever since then it has remained for
posterity as one of the world's most beautiful examples
of military architecture.
The Torre dc Belém was an essential part of the defensive
system for the mouth of the River Tagus, providing crossfire
with the fortress of São Sebastião da Caparica
on the south bank. It consists of a quadrangular tower reminiscent
of the keeps of mediaeval castles and a polygonal bastion,
itself a fine example of the period's advanced defensive
technology, being designed to support heavy artillery, with
embrasures shaped rather like hatchways reaching almost
to sea level.
The sentry posts on each corner of the bastion are crowned
by melon domes, denoting the influence of the style that
was used in fortifications in Morocco, where Francisco de
Arruda worked and certainly sought inspiration. Apart from
these oriental features, the predominant decoration used
in the tower is Manueline, as seen in the stone rope that
encircles it, the heraldic motifs and even the famous rhinoceros,
the first sculpted stone representation of this animal in
Europe. The tower's most decorative side is the one facing
south. Along this runs the loggia, with its finely carved
limestone balustrade. Above the loggia are the shield of
D. Manuel I and the armillary spheres. On
the wall of the small cloister built into the terrace of
the bastion is an 18th century statue of the Virgin and
Child, Our Lady of Safe Homecoming, crowned by a canopy.
Once
inside the tower, which is composed of several rooms, it
is well worth making the effort to climb up to the top storey,
from where you will be rewarded with a remarkable panoramic
view that takes in the wide river estuary and the western
part of the city of Lisbon, all of which is so evocative
of' this period in Portuguese history.
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