Jerónimos Monastery

The Jerónimos Monastery is in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It stands near a wide river.

It is very long, with tall towers and big arched windows, all made of pale stone.

The Jerónimos Monastery stands in Belém, on the shore of the Tagus River at the entrance to the port of Lisbon. Long ago, ships set off from this shore on voyages across the oceans.

Today the building holds a church, a cloister and two museums: the Maritime Museum and the National Museum of Archaeology. Together with the Belém Tower nearby, it is a World Heritage Site.

UNESCO describes the Monastery of the Hieronymites and the Tower of Belém, together called the complex of Belém, on the shore of the Tagus at the entrance to the port of Lisbon. Symbolically linked to the Age of Discoveries, the monastery still preserves most of its structures, including its 16th-century cloister, the former refectory and the library.

The monastery's own site calls it the most remarkable Portuguese monastic complex of its time and, with the Belém Tower, a symbol of Lisbon and of Portugal. Today its west part holds the Maritime Museum and its central dormitory wing the National Museum of Archaeology.

Inside is a cloister: a square courtyard with covered walkways all around it, on two floors.

The arches around it are covered in delicate stone carvings.

The cloister is a covered walkway around a courtyard, on two levels. Its corners are cut off, so from inside it looks eight-sided. Boitaca built the lower level, and Castilho and Torralva finished the upper level in 1540 and 1541.

In the 1800s, builders repaired and added to the monastery in a copy of the old style, called Neo-Manueline. Most of the sea-themed carvings you can see today, such as ropes, fish, anchors and ships, come from that time.

The official guide calls the cloister one of the monastery's most artistically significant features, for its balance, harmonious proportions and decoration. It is square, with chamfered inner corners that give it an octagonal look on both vaulted levels; Boitaca planned both but completed only the lower one, and the upper level was finished by Castilho and Torralva in 1540–1541.

From 1859 the dormitory wing was completed and remodeled, and in 1886 the cloister's upper floor was restored. These works used the Neo-Manueline style, a Romantic revival of King Manuel's decoration; the guide notes that most of the maritime motifs now visible, such as ropes, fish, anchors and ships, are in the parts restored in the 19th century.

In this photo, the monastery stretches far along a wide street, under a bright blue sky. Can you see the tall tower with its pointy top?

This photo was taken on 29 December 2021, on a clear day. On the left rises a tall tower topped by a pointed spire. From it, a very long wing with rows of arched windows runs to the right, past a palm tree and a strip of lawn.

Far away at the right end you can see more pointed towers and a tower with a dome. A few people walk along the square in front.

The photograph (29 December 2021, by Holger Uwe Schmitt) looks along the long facade: a tall tower with a spire and pinnacles on the left, the long two-story range with arched windows and buttresses with pinnacles, and further towers and a domed tower at the far end, beyond a lawn and a wide paved square.

UNESCO notes that restorations of the monastery have strictly respected the original materials and techniques.