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Mosteiro de Sao Vicente Review

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Mosteiro de São Vicente

  • Address: Largo de São Vicente, Alfama, Lisbon
  • Phone: 21/882-4400

Fodor's Review:

The Italianate facade of the twin-towered St. Vincent's Monastery heralds an airy church with a barrel-vault ceiling, the work of accomplished Italian architect Filippo Terzi (1520-97). Finally completed in 1704, the church has a superbly tiled cloister depicting the fall of Lisbon to the Moors. The former refectory is the pantheon of the Bragança dynasty, who were the first rulers of an independent Portugal. Only Maria I and Pedro IV are not buried here, and among the solid tombs and weighty inscriptions lies Catherine of Bragança, who married Charles II of England in 1661. There's little to see—save a medieval cistern and a richly decorated entrance hall—but it's worth the admission fee to climb up to the towers and terrace for a look over the Alfama, city, and river. From here you can see the huge white dome of Santa Engraça—the church immediately behind and below São Vicente in Campo de Santa Clara—which doubles as the country's Panteão Nacional (National Pantheon), housing the tombs of Portugal's former presidents as well as cenotaphs dedicated to its most famous explorers and writers.

  • Cost: Monastery EUR 2, church free, pantheon EUR 1.50
  • Open: Monastery Tues.-Sun. 10-6; church Tues.-Fri. 9-6, Sat. 9-7, Sun. 9-12:30 and 3-5; pantheon Tues.-Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-7, Sun. 10-5
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