Photos

This photo was taken while sight seeing at the Castelo de S. Jorge in mid-August. In the far distance is the Statue of Christ the King as well as the 25th April bridge with a decent view of the river and red roof tops that I love so much about Lisbon. Off to the right is a canon on the grounds of the castle.

Lisbon is a must see; it certainly has my heart.

More information on the Castle from this site..."Over a visigothic fortress, itself founded over pre-roman vestiges, the arabs built Castelo de São Jorge to shelter the main buildings and the population. From there, a wall (Cerca Moura, moorish wall) stretched all the way down to the river.

After the conquest of Lisbon, in 1147, by king Afonso Henriques, the castle ceased to have a defensive role. King Dinis transformed it in a royal palace that was kept up to the times of king Manuel I, even after the building of Paço da Ribeira (Ribeira Palace), next to the river.

Practically destroyed by the 1755 earthquake, it was abandoned, until the military occupied it for their garrisons. This situation lasted up to the 1930´s, when, under the castle reform program included in the Portuguese World Exhibition, it got the present looks.

Recent rehabilitation works in the old fortress and the adjoining quarter led to the opening of a museum complex, CICL - Centro de Interpretação da Cidade de Lisboa (Interpretation Center for the City of Lisbon), with a multimedia show named Olisipónia, and to the installation, on one of the towers, of a giant periscope, by the means of which it is possible to see, on a dark room, live images of the buzzing city below."