Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
1147
The cathedral is the oldest church in Lisbon, built in 1147
The cathedral is the oldest church in the city, built in 1147. After the city was reconquered that year, a new cathedral was built on the site of the main mosque of Lisbon, and an English crusader named Gilbert of Hastings became bishop.
The front
The front of the cathedral looks like a fortress
The main façade looks like a fortress, with two towers flanking the entrance and crenellations over the walls. This appearance is a relic from the Reconquista period, when the cathedral may have been used as a base to attack the enemy during a siege.
A bishop
In 1383 an angry crowd threw a bishop out of a tower window
During the interregnum of 1383 to 85, the populace suspected that Bishop Dom Martinho Annes was plotting with the Castilians. An angry crowd threw him out of the window of the northern tower.
1755
The 1755 earthquake destroyed the Gothic main chapel
Earthquakes have always been a problem for Lisbon. The worst was the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which destroyed the Gothic main chapel along with the royal pantheon. The cloisters and many chapels were also ruined by the quake and the fire that followed.
Under the cloister
Digging in the cloister since 1990 found a Roman road with shops
Excavations started in the cloister in 1990 and revealed a Roman road with shops on either side, part of a Roman kitchen and a sewage system. Traces of later Visigoth buildings and the remains of a mosque were also found.
Day 1, morning
Next is Castelo de São Jorge.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Lisbon Cathedral, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.