Lisbon - Day 6 - Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, cloister.

The weather forecast for my last few days in Lisbon is abysmal - high percentage chance of showers, light rain, rain heavy at times etc. Luckily I was at the front of the line to get into the monastery when the sky opened and was able to duck in just in time.

The pictures don't do it justice especially as the light was so dismal but it took my breath away.

I gather the style is called Manueline

Wikipedia describes it as a sumptuous style of Portuguese architecture. The style was much influenced by the astonishing successes of the voyages of discovery of Portuguese navigators, from the coastal areas of Africa to the discovery of Brazil and the ocean routes to the Far East, drawing heavily on the style and decorations of East Indian temples. Although the period of this style did not last long (from 1490 to 1520), it played an important part in the development of Portuguese art.

The right hand wall in this photo backs on to the church and the doors are into little niches that the monks sat in to hear confession of those in the church. The write up there specified that the sailors going off on "discoveries" and trade trips to the new world came here to confess before leaving.

Everywhere the creamy coloured sandstone is intricately carved.

Some are the same patterns I have seen in tiles

but there's also creatures,

vines

and plants.

When it was pouring the gargoyle like waterspouts did their jobs.

When the sun pushed through, occasionally, everything glistened

With the sun the sandstone became almost honey coloured

and the elaborate shadows added to the complexity of the decoration.

On the opposite side of the cloister from the church was the Refectory, where the monks would take their meals.

It was lined with painted tiles, with a carved rope border, one of the nautical components included in the Manueline style.

The background was painted to imitate marble.

A small door led to the upper cloister

where you could also access the choir level of the church.

Here you could get a better look at all the statues around the top level.

and the upside down ice cream cone, twiddles, on the roof.

I took 100s of photos and with better light would have probably taken more. I edited them brutally before putting them on the computer and then edited again to choose what to put on the blog.

It was one of the few times that I would have liked a good camera (and known how to use it)

There were people with good cameras there and they were clicking like crazy too.

I find that if I get too focused on getting the perfect shots, I forget to enjoy the place itself, so I also walked around, absorbing it, for a while. It seemed to me that  although it is obviously beautiful, I would have thought it would have been distracting as the cloister was supposed to be a place for reflection and prayer.

A painted ceiling above the stairs leading out.

I was going to walk around a little, but one look at the threatening sky and I took the tram back to the hotel.