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Lisbon: the Age of Discovery & Baroque splendour - monuments and masterpieces from Portugal’s Golden Ages
7
days
from
£3,450
Book today with a deposit from
£518
21st - 27th October 2027
Tour highlights
- One of Europe’s great historic capitals, spectacularly sited where the Tagus meets the Atlantic, and rich in the legacy of two Golden Ages – the Age of Discoveries and the Baroque.
- Explore medieval Lisbon’s hilltop castle and cathedral, the tiled backstreets of the Alfama, and the Manueline masterpieces of Belém.
- Further highlights include the palaces of Fronteira, Queluz and Ajuda, and the peerless collections of the Gulbenkian Foundation.
- Stay for six nights at the 5-star Pousada, a historic hotel on the Praça do Comércio, the grandest of the city’s waterfront squares.
Lisbon rises in tiers above the mouth of the Tagus, its pastel façades and red roofs tumbling down seven hills to where one of Europe’s great rivers opens into the Atlantic. Few capitals command such a stage, and few have so long a history: Phoenician traders are said to have settled here around 1200 BC, making Lisbon one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe. The Moors held it for four centuries, until 1147, when Afonso Henriques, soon to become Portugal’s first king, took the city after a long siege.
In the fifteenth century Portuguese sailors and merchants made pioneering voyages as the first Europeans to sail around the coast of Africa, India, China and Japan, and the first to circumnavigate the globe. During the ‘Age of Discoveries’ this small nation created a global trading empire, and a vast territorial empire in Brazil. These achievements, and the wealth they brought, paid for a golden age of building and art whose traces still crowd Lisbon’s churches, monasteries and museums.
Catastrophe struck in 1755, when a great earthquake, followed by fire and a tidal wave, destroyed much of the city. Confronted with heaps of rubble, King José I’s formidable chief minister, the Marquess of Pombal, seized the chance to remake central Lisbon from scratch on a grid-plan, expressing the rational values of the Enlightenment. The districts on the surrounding hills, spared by the earthquake, still keep their tangled medieval streets.
The result is a city rich in the physical evidence of two golden ages: the late-Gothic Manueline style and Renaissance art of the Age of Discoveries, and, two centuries later, a distinctively Portuguese Baroque.
Lisbon wears its history lightly. It has never suffered the ravages of war, and its neighbourhoods still have the intimate scale of an earlier age. Bars, cafés and small shops animate the street scene, and everywhere you are aware of the proximity of the Tagus and the sea – a reminder that this most amiable of capitals owes its history and character to its position where Europe meets the Atlantic.
Itinerary
Fly at c. 11.15am from London Heathrow to Lisbon (TAP Air Portugal). A short introductory walk takes in the area betwen Rossio Square and the Praça do Comércio.
Participants combining this tour with Music in Toledo take a transfer to Madrid airport, then fly (Air Europa) to Lisbon, arriving in time for the afternoon walk.
Start at the 12th-century Castelo de São Jorge, taken from the Moors in 1147 by King Afonso Henriques, with superb views over the city from its battlements. Walk downhill to the 12th-century cathedral, which has a magnificent treasury and Phoenician remains within the cloister. Afternoon in the Bairro Alto, the hilly district just west of the centre, including the 17th century church of São Roque and the Convento do Carmo, ruined in the 1755 earthquake and now an archaeological museum.
Start at the National Tile Museum, the outstanding collection of blue painted tiles or azulejos, set in a magnificent historic convent (currently closed for renovations and due to reopen before our tour, though delays are possible). Visit the church of São Vicente then continue on foot to tour the Alfama district. The Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva is Portugal’s premier collection of decorative art, with an emphasis on the 17th and 18th centuries.
Morning visit to the palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira, a beautiful villa in the suburb of Benfica, still occupied by the descendants of its builder, João de Mascarenhas, a hero of Portugal’s 17th-century War of Independence. The palace boasts superb decoration and historic gardens with extraordinary tile-work. In the afternoon we tour Queluz, the 18th-century summer residence of the Portuguese crown, one of the most beautiful palaces in Europe with a series of exquisitely decorated Rococo interiors and formal gardens.
Morning at the Palácio de Ajuda, a great Neoclassical palace begun in the 1790s and decorated in the 19th century. The palace and the new Royal Treasures gallery housing jewels, silverware, medals and porcelain, give unmatched insights into the history of the Portuguese crown. Some free time in the afternoon.
In the waterfront district of Belém, King Manuel I ‘the Fortunate’ built two of the masterpieces of the late-Gothic ‘Manueline’ style: the Torre de Belém, a miniature fort that is an emblem of the nation, and the Jerónimos Monastery. A short walk away is the Coach Museum, with the finest collection of gilded Baroque and Rococo coaches in the world.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a great cultural complex. It houses magnificent collections of antiquities, Old Master paintings and fine and decorative art formed by Gulbenkian in his lifetime, housed in a superb Modern Movement gallery. Afternoon flight to London Heathrow, arriving c. 6.45pm.
Expert speaker
Dr Steven Brindle
Read History at Oxford and worked for English Heritage for 34 years. He was also involved in the post-fire restoration of Windsor Castle, 1993–7. Publications include Brunel, the Man who built the World (2006), Windsor Castle: A Thousand Years of A Royal Palace (2018) and Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530-1830 (2023). Twitter: @StevenPBrindle
More tours led by Dr Steven Brindle
Practicalities
Price, per person. Two sharing: £3,710 or £3,450 without flights. Single occupancy: £4,570 or £4,310 without flights.
Pousada de Lisboa: 5-star hotel on Lisbon’s grandest square, the Praça do Comércio. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
This is a busy itinerary with a lot of walking and standing around. Lisbon is a hilly city and a large amount of uphill and downhill walking is inevitable. Moving around by coach in the city centre is often not practical, so we move on foot between some of the visits. Terrain is often uneven and steep, and cobbled tiles can be slippery when wet. A good level of fitness is essential.
Between 10 and 22 participants.
Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website and Travel Health Pro to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
21st - 27th October 2027
Speaker:
Dr Steven Brindle
Price:
from £3,450
(Based on two sharing)Combine with
We are happy to advise on combining this itinerary with another tour or event. Please contact us for information about linking accommodation and transport.
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