Let Secret Lisbon guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Lisbon guide book and let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of this amazing city. Ideal for local inhabitants, curious visitors and armchair travellers alike.
The places included in our guides are unusual and unfamiliar, allowing one to step off the beaten track.
Now in it's third edition, Secret Lisbon features 160 secret and unusual locations.
Inside Secret Lisbon :
The most beautiful hidden tiles of the city, the head of the serial killer Lisbon preserved in formalin, the Kabbalistic principles of the south portal of the Jeronimos Monastery or the theory of the fifth Portuguese empire of which we find so many traces in the geography of the city, charming forgotten dead ends, the outstanding panoptic architecture of a former hospital, the impressive wax masks from the Dermatology Museum, a secret passage at the hotel Avenida Palace, the mysterious abbey below Palacio Foz, the reason why the coat of arms of the Portugal is inclined at 17 Degrees on the facade of the Rossio station ...
Don't miss - Each chapter of this Secret Lisbon travel guide book corresponds to a different neighbourhood of the city so that one can always find a hidden or secret place to discover.
Perfectly planned walks - Make sure that you do not miss any Secret location, by discovering each one featured in this guide by planning a walking tour of each neighbourhood.
Secret Lisbon - An Unusual Travel Guide
Description
Table of Contents
Vila Berta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The stars of Estrella d'Ouro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Saint Gens' chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Tavora Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Colegio dos Meninos Orfaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The curiosities of Menino Deus Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The azulejos of the Belmonte Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The cistern of Saint Michael of Alfama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Why does the El Rei Fountain have six water outlets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The symbols of Saint Lucia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The legend of Santa Luzia (Saint Lucia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Protection from fever or sore throats: the miracles of Saint Blaise . . . . . 31
Why is Saint Blaise one of the patron saints of the Order of Malta? . . . . . 31
The unusual capitals of Lisbon Cathedral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Principles of Sacred Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Lisbon Cathedral's "Holy Door" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The sarcred symbolism of the Fleur-De-Lis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Pentagrams of the Cathedral Cloister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
The bird pillar in the Cathedral Cloister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Pillar of the souls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Roman stelae at Pedras Negras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The magical "black stones" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Olisipo: Lisbon's version of the goddess Cybele . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The mysterious Cais das Colunas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Baixa Pombalina's Sacred Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Hermetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The seven sacred hills of Lisbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Hermes Trismegistus and Hermetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The symbols of the equestrian statue of king Dom Jose I . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The mechanism of the clock on Rua Augusta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Fernando Pessoa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Fernando Pessoa's table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The symbols of Lisbon's triumphal arch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
The transfer of power - Translatio Imperii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Father Antonio Vieira and the Fifth Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Portugal: the "Head" of the " Body" of Europe? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The blazing eagle of Sao Nicolau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The eagle: the only bird with double eyelids capable of staring directly
at the Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Rossio Cinema's Art Nouveau Facade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The dolls' hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
The medallion of two joined hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The Masonic salute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Why is an espresso called a bica in Lisbon? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Painting of Bocage's arrest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Secrets of Tabacaria Monaco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The bust of Prince Albert I of Monaco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The last vestiges of the Hospital Real de Todos os Santos . . . . . . . . . . 80
The panels of the Restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
When Christ detached his right arm from the cross to bless liberated
Portugal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Panoramic view of Lisbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Patio do Tronco tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Lima de Freitas' fifth empire panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Secret passage of the Avenida Palace Hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
The sercrets of the Dom Sebastiao statue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
17, Portugal's key number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Why was Portugal's coat of arms straightened? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Dom Sebastiao, the "Chimerical King" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
The underground abbey of Palacio Foz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Freemason Agapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The symbols of Palacio Foz's Abadia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The underground passage of Principe Real Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
The azulejos of the Cardaes Convent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
From Portuguese azulejos to Dutch ceramics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Atelier-Museu Julio Pomar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
An icon of modernism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
The forgotten palace of the Almada-Carvalhais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
The sculpture of Adamastor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Santa Catarina: a Belvedere for the lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Palace of the Marquis of Pombal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Cagliostro at Palacio Sobral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Egyptian mysteries revealed in The Magic Flute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Cagliostro, an occultist who inspired Mozart, Goethe and Alexadre
Dumas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Palacio do Manteigueiro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Domingos Mendes Dias, a true miser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Sebastianism and Messianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Messianism and the fifth empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Fado: Portuguese identity linked to Sebastianism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Tombs of the Sebastianists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The symbols of the tomb of king Dom Fernando I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Trinidade Brasserie's Masonic Azulejos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
The Saint Constable's magic sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The Carmelites: an orde influenced by Hermetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
The strange story of the Braco de Prata (Silver Arm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Royal door of our lady of the Victory of Mount Carmel Convent . . . . . . 127
The five-pointed star of Grandella department stores . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
The symbolism of the Pentagram, the five-pointed star . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Epic of the Holy Constable Relics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Nuno Alvares Pereira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Tomb of the Countess of Edla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
The symbols of Carvalho Monteiro's Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
The Knights Templar: myth and reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
The Duke of Palmela's Masonic vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Fonte Santa dos Prazeres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
The interior garden of the Sao Bento Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
German Cemetery in Lisbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
A secular German presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Francesinhas Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
British Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
The Mouse of Rato Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Calceteiro, a dying craft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Lion of the star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Nativity scene in the Basilica da Estrela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Facade of Casa do Visconde de Sacavem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Casa Museu Sofia e Tomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
The high relief of martyr saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
In the odour of sanctity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Secrets of Nuno Goncalves' Polyptych . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Melki-Tzedek and Prester John: myth and reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Symbolism of the two-headed Manuelin Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Sao Jeronimo chapel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Manuelin Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Traces of the Kabbalah on Jeronimos monastery's south gate . . . . . . 179
The Iberian Kabbalah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Dom Henrique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Symbols of the cell doors of Hieronymite monks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Joachim of Fiore and the three ages of the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Alchemy and the religious orders of the middle ages
and the Renaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Chao Salgado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The tomb of the Marquis of Pombal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
The mysterious fountain with forty spouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
The Pompeia Room of Palacio da Ega . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
The origin of Stroganoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Institute for Tropical Scientific Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
The rotunda of Santo Amaro Chapel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Who was Saint Maurus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Mystery of the ambulatory of the Knights Templar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
The five basic solids and sacred geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Templar inscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
What exactly is the Baphomet? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Machada Grotto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
The garden of the City Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
The Eyes of the Owl in Cidade Universitaria Metro Station . . . . . . . . . . 215
The ghosts of Beau Sejour Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Talia Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Symbols f the Palacio-Museu Marqueses de Fronteira . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Symbols of the Zoological Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
The head of Diogo Alves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
The "Diaphanised hand" of Lisbon's Teatro Anatomico . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
The Andaluz Fountain bas-relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
The raven: the origin of the name "Lisbon"? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Saint Vincent, the saint of divine wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
The symbols of Saint Vincent's sea voyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Pavilhao Carlos Lopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Symbols of the Marquis of Pombal Statue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Marquis of Pombal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Panoptic Pavilion of Hospital Miguel Bombarda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
What is panoptic architecture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Secrets of Casa Dos 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
The ex-votos around the statue of doctor Sousa Martins . . . . . . . . . . 243
Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
The wax masks in the Museum of Dermatology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
The former Viuva Lamego ceramics factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
The lizard of penha de franca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Church of Sao Felix de Chelas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
The hermetic azulejos of Madre de Deus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Pietro Proserpio's mini-museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Village Underground Lisboa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Village Underground, a European concept on a roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Author Description
Vitor Manuel Adriao, acclaimed historian and philosopher, is heir to all this esoteric knowledge in Portugal. Here for the first time he reveals his incredible knowledge in this truly initiatory guide, with a mind-boggling interpretation of the arcana of a city which some consider is on the way to becoming the spiritual capital of Europe.