Hieronymites Monastery

With our Lisboa Card, we didn’t have to wait very long to get in. It is a very impressive monument, and took over 100 years to build. It is a very impressive site, and very elaborately decorated.

The monastery was designed in a manner that later became known as “Manueline”, a richly ornate architectural style with complex sculptural themes incorporating maritime elements and objects discovered during naval expeditions, carved in limestone. The building embodies the golden age of Portuguese discoveries, and was funded using the profits from the spices Vasco da Gama brought back from India. Vasco da Gama’s tomb lays within the monastery.

Manuel I selected the religious order of Hieronymite monks to occupy the monastery, whose role it was to pray for the King's eternal soul, and to provide spiritual assistance to navigators and sailors who departed from the port of Restelo to discover lands around the world. This the monks did for over four centuries until 1833, when the religious orders were dissolved and the monastery was abandoned.

The monastery withstood the 1755 Lisbon earthquake with very little damage. It stood vacant for sometime during the 1800’s and restoration work began in the 1860’s.Read more