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Masonic poem from "Anthem III" in Ilustração da Maçonaria of William Preston (1804)
Let me take you to Sintra, a wonderful small town just near Lisbon.
There's so much to see, starting from the Vila palace at left...
But the reason why we are here is to visit Quinta da Regaleira, an estate located near the center of Sintra.
Along with other palaces in this area (such as Pena, Monserrate and Seteais), it is one of the principal tourist attractions of Sintra.
According to Wikipedia Quinta da Regaleira consists of a romantic palace and chapel, and a luxurious park featuring lakes, grottoes, wells, benches, fountains, and a vast array of exquisite constructions.
In 1892 it belonged to the Barons of Regaleira, a family of rich merchants from Porto, when it was purchased by Antonio Monteiro also known by the nickname of "Monteiro of the Millions", a lawyer and man of culture who inherited a huge family fortune, for 125 Euros.
Monteiro wished to build a bewildering place where he could gather symbols that would reflect his interests and ideologies. With the assistance of the Italian architect Luigi Manini, he designed the entire 4 hectare estate with its enigmatic buildings...
Quinta da Regaleira is now classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO within the "Cultural Landscape of Sintra".
Welcome to Quinta da Regaleira
A place where everything is hidden... on sight!
Sintra is a magical place on it's own as it's claimed to be the Mountain of the Moon.
A ruler, a square and a compass over a map are enough to "find" lines and alignments between Sintra, Mountain of Arrabida and Mafra where a huge convent was built on 18 century.
The Park
Visitants enter to the park. Most of the four hectares of land in the estate consist of a densely treed park crossed by a myriad of roads and footpaths.
Gods and goddesses show us the way...
This is the portal of the guardians as seen from the tower of Regaleira.
Although the view from the park to the mountain of Sintra and Moorish castle is amazing...
The most amazing is Quinta da Regaleira itself.
Take a look at this gazebo...
The architecture of the estate evokes Roman, Gothic, Renaissance and Manueline architectural styles.
Certainly... this isn't a normal bench...
Why are those pelicans there?
In medieval Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood when no other food was available. As a result, the pelican became a symbol of the Passion of Jesus and of the Eucharist. It also became a symbol in bestiaries for self-sacrifice, and was used in heraldry ("a pelican in her piety" or "a pelican wounding herself").
Another version of this is that the pelican used to kill its young and then resurrect them with its blood, this being analogous to the sacrifice of Jesus.
Since the bench is between the palace and the chapel, could it explain their presence?
Knowing that the crowned armillary spheres symbolize Portugal, what can we think about this boy and dog represented below?
The Chapel
Here is the Regaleira Chapel that stands in front of the palace's main facade.
The interior of this Christian temple is richly decorated with frescoes, stained glass windows and lavish stuccoes such as this Masonic one...
The floor contains representations of the armillary sphere of the Portuguese discoveries and the Order of Christ Cross (the Convent of the Order of Christ was the home of the Knights Templar, later renamed at Portugal as Order of Christ) that also represented Portugal, surrounded by pentagrams.
Above the altar, Jesus Christ crowns a woman who could be either the Virgin Mary or Mary Magdalene.
The Journey to Light
But let's get back to the park... This is the grotto of Orient, leading to a labyrinth of tunnels...
In fact, the park contains an extensive and enigmatic system of tunnels, which have multiple accesses including the grottoes, the chapel, the Waterfall Lake, and the "Leda's Cave" beneath the Regaleira Tower.
Their symbolism has been interpreted as a trip between darkness and light, death and resurrection.
The most impressive is this tunnel leading to...
The initiation Well.
The well invoke the Knights Templar. Masons were supposed to descend this monumental initiating well by the immense spiral stair...
...round and round...
...deep down in mother Earth womb.
Arriving to the bottom, feet over a 8 points stars, one start a journey trough dark tunnels and grottos until achieve...
Light! Light reflected in amazing lakes!
The Palace
The facade is marked by exuberant Gothic and Manueline pinnacles, gargoyles, capitals...
An impressive octagonal tower dominates it.
This is a nice balcony over the park.
But everywhere there are unknown symbols, symbols and more symbols.
Here is the main entrance of the Palace of Regaleira.
The palace has five floors (a ground floor, three upper floors and a basement).
The ground floor contains a series of hallways connecting the living room, dining room, billiards room, balcony, some smaller rooms and spiral stairway.
This is the hunting room.
"Monteiro of the Millions" represented in the press of his time as both an altruist and an eccentric, being a well-known collector and bibliophile, left a superb collection of the works of the Portuguese poet Camoes .
He had the same architect who built the Regaleira estate, Luigi Manini, to build his tomb with the orientation, size, and shape of a Masonic temple. The door of the tomb was opened with the same key that opened the Regaleira palace and his palace in Lisbon.
...Alchemy, Masonry, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians...
Everything is at Regaleira estate!
Hidden on sight.
Visible only to the eyes of spirit!
I hope you enjoyed the visit!
This entry was written with Windows Live Writer. I found it easier than with Xanga editor, although some difficulties in formatting pictures.
The downloading and use of Live Writer is explained on Xanga home page.
Last time I posted about music I chose Mozart and the music here is always "erudite" as it's really my preference…
But what you are about to listen (if you care to see the video) has nothing to do with it and yet… I love it!
Being music such a personal and immediate experience, so much more intimate than any other form of art, I don't know where Buraka's music gets me… but one thing is for sure… this music has "something", something that I feel in my muscles in my bones!
So I dance!
This is the first Buraka som sistema's video. The track is called Yah! and it's the first single taken from the E.P. From Buraka to the World. Buraka is the name of a slum although this young people didn't came from one… they just chose the name for a matter of "style"… The E.P. name was in fact premonitory as Buraka became a success all over Europe and are now a phenomenon on the world music. Why? Because they essentially play Kuduro, a kind of traditional music from Angola, Africa. And it seems incredible how this rhythm carried away young people all over Europe.
By the way… Kuduro means "hard ass" and as you can see in this second video, one do need a hard a… to dance Kuduro, but also hard arms, hard legs and a hard head…
Kuduro is all about vitality, strength, joy de vivre!
I hope you have danced! And did not broke any bone! Have a happy weekend!
Except for horse riding, it's rare that I wear hats… So I remembered one time that, for several days, I had to wear one… it was during the 1998 World Expo that took place from May to September 1998 here in Lisbon. It's hard to believe that a decade has passed since the last time I wear this hat… It's even harder to believe that half of a century has passed, since I born until today, when I specially made this "self-portrait" for you my Friends…
The 1998 World Expo, prompted a major city renewal. A huge decaying industrial district was transformed into a beautiful waterfront, the Nation's Park.
Ponte Vasco da Gama
Also a new bridge over the river Tagus was built, the longest bridge of Europe. And a very beautiful one…
Orient Station
The entrance in the Park, from the river, is gorgeous but also the entrance from land, through the Orient Station from the architect Santiago Calatrava, one of the main transportation hubs of Lisbon, for trains, metro, buses and taxis is beautiful.
The light ceiling of Orient Station and the whole structure are wonderful. Coming from land, one have to cross it to get to the Mall.
But it's the waterfront of Nation's Park that we all prefer… To see it in an eyes-bird, there's nothing like taking the ferry cable.
The view is great…
Of course we can always rent a pedal car to go around! Here we are, some years ago… My grandson Artur wasn't born yet.
Portugal Pavilion
A friend of mine was trying her new bike! Ahead of her is Portugal Pavilion, from the architect Alvaro Siza Vieira, an amazing building.
Under this ceiling, only supported at the extremes, thousands of parties took place since 1998.
International Fair of Lisbon
I also like very much the International Fair, the strength and lightness of its structure as sails of a sailing boat.
Oceanario
The Oceanario, that I've already shown you, is also a great building but it's great mainly because of its content as it's a huge aquarium. I shall post soon about an impressive manta, so huge that it was too big to keep being kept in captivity…
Vasco da Gama Tower
This is the Vasco da Gama tower. At the top there was a restaurant.
The restaurant, now closed as an hotel attached are about to be built, offered another privileged sight…
Just hanging around at Nation's Park is very pleasant.
As the weather in Lisbon gets very hot in Summer, fountains and lakes were built all over.
Instead of being apart and far from people, one can actually refresh in those fountains…
Or take a full bath!
About bathing at Park of the Nations, these fountains (there are several at the Ocean Boulevard) from time to time projects water as volcanoes so children (and even people not so young) love to "wait" for that time to run away or… take an huge bath!
Of course there's easiest ways of getting fresher, although it's not accessible to all… The river Tagus, the water in fountains and lakes, the 10.000 trees that were planted, the gardens, the lawns and the safe and relaxed environment make Nation's Park a very nice place.
Sculpture at the entrance of the Mall
But it's time to go to the Mall…
Vasco da Gama Mall
Now I have to confess that I hate malls. Mainly because I hate shopping (my ideal is to have a "consultant" to who I could call asking whatever I need and all would appear, as by miracle, at home). But from all the Lisbon malls, this is the one I prefer. Why?
Vasco da Gama Mall have a beautiful light.
The environment is cool despite the huge glass walls and ceiling, not because of massive air conditioning, but because of an innovating cooling system based on… water.
Water is running everywhere. At the ceiling it runs between glasses and that gives a feeling of being inside a cascade… But… what is that white point?
It's a seagull. Seagulls use the cool mall ceiling to rest and we, humans, below, stare at their moving shapes and shadows as from under sea…
I hope you liked to know better the city of Lisbon. And coming to the Mall at Nation's Park with me!
For a better knowledge of Nation's Park, the most important buildings and activities here is a link: Discover Nation's Park
Have a wonderful time!
Curious about the spot below?
Here's a clue… there's some unexpected pictures… and that's all I'm going to say…
This theme certainly is interesting and challenging as guilty pleasures is something I don't have… Truly… I only feel guilty for the pleasures I didn't had! So here are together two of my greatest pleasures: outdoors and photos.
Aquatic Star (Kaleidoscope made with Paint Shop Pro 8)
As the painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner said, a " painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things. ", to me, this statement is valid also to a photograph.
The concept of "true" or "objective correctness" in this picture does not make much sense to me… The day was foggy, it rained several times, it was cold and if I wouldn't like so much outdoors, it all would be a sacrifice… But should photos show it? Or should they show the enchantment of knowing a wonderful wild place? The feeling of peculiarity and greatness I had?
Some weeks ago we took some students to the Natural Park of Sudoeste Alentejano and Costa Vicentina. They were intended to study the landscape, marked by steep cliffs that have been given various forms and coloring by centuries of erosion but also bird species that can be seen, such as fishing eagles. The rarest specie is the white stork, given that this is the only place in the world where they build their nests in the seashore rocks. Another rarity is the otter, since this is the only place in Portugal and one of the last places in Europe where it is possible to find otters in a marine habitat. Plant life includes the largest number of priority species in Portugal, including unique indigenous species such as Biscutella vicentina or Plantago Almogravensis.
The cost follows, since Lisbon, alternating between cliffs and beaches…
Miles and miles of cliffs and beaches until the southern part of the country, Algarve, well known by… more beaches!
To tell you the true, I can't differentiate rare plant species to common ones, but the kids collected a lot of samples with the help of Natural Science and Geography teachers.
I tried to learn and took pictures. I found the exquisite forms of the dunes and the dried ordinary plants as appealing as Biscutella vicentina or Plantago Almogravensis.…
The breach was great… This one is highly popular amongst surfers and is one of the finest in the country for the practice. Later I had to fight the wind and rain with my umbrella for about 15 minutes…wind one, umbrella zero…
After settling down for lunch that we carried in our backpacks, we explore it…
All right… I might have exaggerated here with Photoshop, but the angle of those rocks was not so much different…
Sharp teeth emerging from the soft sand…
Blocks like backs of ancient animals ready to wake up and raise…
Shapes, textures and colors fascinated me.
Shapes, textures and colors… like natural artworks.
Erosion shaping forms in a ever changing landscape…
In constant movement…
Changing like living beings.
Macro worlds…
Micro worlds…
Present and gone worlds.
Mirroring each other and the sky.
Earth (Composite image made with Photoshop CS2, Photomatix and Paint Shop Pro 8)
This picture couldn’t be more fake, in the sense that it doesn't respect the "objective correctness"… And yet the new appearance I've created it's true in representing the inexorability of time. And for that I would hang it at my living room as a reminder…
Guilty for the pleasure of loving earth? Guilty for the pleasure of using Photoshop CS2, Photomatix, Paint Shop Pro 8?
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True
In 1892 it belonged to the Barons of Regaleira, a family of rich merchants from Porto, when it was purchased by Antonio Monteiro also known by the nickname of "Monteiro of the Millions", a lawyer and man of culture who inherited a huge family fortune, for 125 Euros.
