Belém Tower - Lisbon, Portugal
N 38° 41.522 W 009° 12.982
29S E 481183 N 4282623
The Belém Tower or Torre de Belém was constructed in the 16th century and is considered one of the main works of the Portuguese late Gothic, Manueline style.
Waymark Code: WM15DE7
Location: Lisboa, Portugal
Date Posted: 12/13/2021
Views: 25
I took these photos of the Belém Tower while on a business trip to the Azores. I made a 3-day layover in Lisbon on my way home and took a bus tour. This was one of our stops and my first time visiting the tower. While not a large structure, it certainly catches your attention, likely because of the interesting Gothic architecture.
"Belém Tower (Portuguese: Torre de Belém), officially the Tower of Saint Vincent (Portuguese: Torre de São Vicente) is a 16th-century fortification located in Lisbon that served as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. It was built during the height of the Portuguese Renaissance, and is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style, but it also incorporates hints of other architectural styles. The structure was built from lioz limestone and is composed of a bastion and a 30-metre (98.4 ft), four-storey tower.
Since 1983, the tower has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Jerónimos Monastery. It is often portrayed as a symbol of Europe's Age of Discoveries and as a metonym for Portugal or Lisbon, given its landmark status. It has incorrectly been stated that the tower was built in the middle of the Tagus and now sits near the shore because the river was redirected after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. In fact, the tower was built on a small island in the Tagus river near the Lisbon shore."
--Wikipedia (
visit link)