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Even before the Great Earthquake, the Monastery of Jeronimos (Mosteiro dos Jeronimos; Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; ?2.50; tram #15 from Praca do Comercio or #14 from Praca da Figuera) at Belem was Lisbon's finest monument: since then, it has stood quite without comparison. It was from Belem in 1497 that Vasco da Gama set sail for India, and it was here, too, that he was welcomed home by Dom Manuel "the Fortunate". The monastery was funded by a levy on the fruits of his discovery - a five-percent tax on all spices other than pepper, cinnamon and cloves, whose import had become the sole preserve of the Crown. Begun in 1502, this is the most ambitious achievement of Manueline architecture. The main entrance to the church is a complex, shrine-like hierarchy of figures centred around Henry the Navigator. Vaulted throughout and fantastically embellished, the cloister is one of the most original and beautiful pieces of architecture in the country, holding Gothic forms and Renaisssance ornamentation in an exuberant balance. The Torre de Belem (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; ?2.50, free Sun am), guarding the entrance to the port around five hundred metres from the monastery, is a multi-turreted whimsy built over the last five years of Dom Manuel's reign. Its architect had previously worked on Portuguese fortifications in Morocco, and a Moorish influence is very strong in the delicately arched windows and balconies. The interior is unremarkable except for a "whispering gallery". Back towards the monastery are a number of museums, of which the best is the Museu de Arte Popular (Tues-Sun 10am-12.30pm & 2-5pm; ?1.50), a province-by-province display of Portugal's still very diverse folk arts, housed in a shed-like building on the waterfront. Almost adjacent is the vast concrete Monument to the Discoveries (Tues-Sun 9.30am-6pm; ?1.60), erected in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator; inside, a small exhibition space has changing displays on the city's history, and there are fine views of the Tejo from the top.
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