Portugal experienced a deep economic crisis. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered to cover the holes by "buying" the debt of the country. But the wealth of Belém are certainly not for sale. Visit of 2004.
must be abstraction from the bridge when it was dedicated to Salazar, and now to April 25, the day of his fall from power. Forget the shame of the monumental stool at Christ the King and dramatic silhouette of refineries across the Tagus. Then you can put to imagine the caravels set sail for new worlds and new markets, started by those rulers who possessed the spirit of commerce in the blood. As Manuel I, to whom we owe these masterpieces of art Manueline, in fact, who made a charming port of Belem to the ocean, while an encouragement and an exorcism. Marble and gold.
note passing sailboats driven by strong winter breeze and driven by oil strength of the engine roaring from the balcony of the Renaissance Tower of Belém, built by Manuel I between 1515 and 1521. I am sure that the boat owner on Sunday and the Both of professional driver looking in the direction of the tower, or rather, the statue of the Virgin and Child, also known as Our Lady of the happy return home, a symbol of protection for sailors who undertake short or long travel. The statue faces the sea. And at the time of construction of the tower was also in the midst of the waves, because the bank is at least a hundred meters further than it does today.
The lodge is the most elegant imaginable in a building, however, defensive Thanks to the elegant arches inspired by Italian architecture of the time. Today the light is crystal clear, the sun kisses the white stone of the tower turning it into vertical momentum towards the deep blue winter sky. The sun's rays can barely penetrate the thick stone walls, and to illuminate the narrow spiral staircase that links the four upper levels of the tower, giving relief to the wasting of time and many steps that have relied on these irremediably steps carved and deformed. Once they were the footsteps of soldiers, animated by the spirit of territorial conquest, and today are the steps of carefree tourists animated by the spirit of conquest photo, and nothing more. But then the war was rife, now rule the money, or maybe the money then prevailed and now the war. Who knows.
imperial steps instead are those that allow access to the various buildings that make up the other great masterpiece of Manueline, the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, built from our usual king Manuel I, around 1501, just returned to the caravels conquering Vasco de Gama. A triumph of architectural and sculptural skill, daring and bold decorative perspective. The cloister. Ah, the cloister of João de Castilho, its arches and its perforated stone balustrades and carved precious! One would stay there no limits dìorari and timing draconian omnivores by tourists! But you should find yourself in solitude, meditating on the fallacy of human wealth, the thirst for conquest that never disappears, although the depth of the human soul that came to more intimacy turns to the most superhuman superhuman appearance.
If the cloister calls to the vertically downward, toward the intimacy, the church instead of pushing to the vertically upward, toward the God who is in heaven. That is somewhere over the vaults of the nave is supported by those palm trees that are octagonal columns, thin but highly decorated. A space wisely distributed by the light filtering from colored stained glass.
The modern monument to the discoveries, massive construction built by Salazar in 1960, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator, does not contrast too much on the banks of the Tagus, at the monastery. Magellan, Vasco de Gama, Cabral, Colombo, hoisted on the bow of a caravel declining imaginary we are doing well, staring into the ocean that had challenged as you embark on a bold down in the depths of the soul, or how to scale the way to the sky, terrifying vertical ascents. Perhaps they have taken the infinite horizontal ocean depths or because they can not get to ascend the throne of God. Heroism in the plural.
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