Sprawling across the central Belem district approximately seven kilometres west of central Lisbon, the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos is one of the most architecturally distinguished surviving examples of the wider Portuguese late Gothic Manueline architectural style. The substantial monastery covers approximately three hundred metres of continuous monumental frontage along the principal northern side of the great Praca do Imperio square and was originally completed in stages between 1501 and 1601. The monastery was originally commissioned in 1501 by King Manuel I of Portugal as a substantial new royal religious foundation marking the famous successful 1498 sea voyage of Vasco da Gama to India. The principal initial construction was funded by a specific share of the wider new Indian spice trade, with approximately five per cent of the principal initial annual proceeds of the new trading network specifically allocated to the principal construction of the new monastery throughout the first half of the sixteenth century. The principal early sixteenth-century construction was directed by the French architect Diogo de Boitaca between 1501 and 1517 and the subsequent Portuguese architect Joao de Castilho between 1517 and 1551. The principal current Manueline architectural character of the wider monastery primarily reflects the work of these two architects, with the various naturalistic carved stone decoration including the various representations of marine ropes, coral, the principal armillary sphere symbol of King Manuel I and the various supplementary tropical plant species discovered during the wider Portuguese maritime expeditions. The principal church of Santa Maria de Belem along the western side of the substantial wider monastery complex contains the tombs of King Manuel I and his queen Maria of Aragon, as well as the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and the principal Portuguese national epic poet Luis de Camoes. The substantial principal cloister at the centre of the wider complex measures approximately fifty metres square and is one of the principal surviving examples of the wider sixteenth-century Manueline cloister architecture. The monastery was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1983 and has been one of the principal Portuguese national monuments continuously since the original 1840s heritage protection legislation. The principal current annual visitor numbers exceed one million individual visitors per year, making the monastery one of the most heavily visited individual monuments anywhere in Portugal.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Praca do Imperio, Lisbon, Portugal

Opening Date: 01/01/1601