Sé de Lisboa

Lisbon's cathedral .. stands stolidly on a slope overlooking the Baixa grid. Founded in 1150 to commemorate the city's reconquest from the Moors, it has a suitably fortress-like appearance .. and in fact occupies the site of the principal mosque of Moorish Lishbuna. Like so many of the country's cathedrals, it is Romanesque - and extraordinarily restrained in both size and decoration.

... You can .. access the thirteenth-century cloister. This is currently being heavily excavated, revealing the remains of a sixth-century Roman house and Moorish public buildings.

Such were the brief descriptions and suggestions the ever-reliable Rough Guide gave on visiting the Sé, and its reliability had hence been again proven [despite the lack of such a need]. Indeed, visiting the cloister is the best thing to do at Lisbon's Sé and, in its absence, the cathedral remains solemn and quiet in its solitude.
On the other side however, the cloister's side, there's light coming from above and the arches breed familiarity. Curiosity is as lively as ever and each little detail begs a new question.


[And, by the way, Why is this dead statue reading? Have you seen anything like it before? Any clues?]