Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (Monastery of the Jeronimos)

The next stop of our bus tour was in the district of Belem. Here I saw maybe one of the most incredible buildings I have ever seen in my life, the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos. The monastery was built commencing in the year 1501, and is designed in the Manueline architecture style. It was built at about the same time that Vasco da Gama, one of Portugal's main discoverers and sailors returned from his historic voyage. The outside of the monastery is enormous and so finely detailed in its beauty. The inside is just as incredible. The ceilings are higher than any I've ever seen, with pillars that rise like palm trees to the top of the roof. The inside has a very open, welcome feel to it, and at the front the altar with paintings of Christ behind it are quite remarkable as well. The building fascinated me so much that I returned to it a few days later to experience it a little more. On my second visit, I found something that I didn't notice the first time I went with the big group. They were the tombs of two of the most famous Portuguese men in the history of the country. The first being Vasco da Gama who I already mentioned, and the second being Luiz Vaz de Camoes. He is Portugal's most famous poet and writer, and I have actual read a lot of his poetry in my Portuguese classes at BYU. Here are a few pictures from  both the inside and outside of the building, as well as the tombs of the two men that I just mentioned. It is so amazing to be experiencing the history of such a historically rich country first-hand. It definitely beats learning about it in a classroom on the other side of the world. When Camilia came here we took the tour to go through the inside courtyard and other rooms of the monastery, which were spectacular as well. I came across another tomb of another famous Portuguese poet whose work I have studied, Fernando Pessoa, which was good to see as well. We also saw a theater going on in one of the hallways of the monastery, which was interesting to say the least.