The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-11-30
IN PICTURESQUE OP0RTO
Sights and Landmarks in One of
EurOpe's Oldest Cities.
THE FOOTSTEPS OF ANTIQUITY
Ancient Churches. the Foundations of
Which Were Laid More Than
Thousand Years Ago.

OPORTO, Portugal, Nov. 2.-You
may think it an easy matter to do"
the sights of compact city of only
190,0O0-until you have tried it in
Oporto, and found more weariness of
the flesh, and especially of the feet,
than in any climbing you
ever encountered. While the hori-
zontal streets nearest the quay are
wider, well-built and comparatively
level, most of the others are totally
impossible for wheeled vehicles, be-
ing either too narrow or almost per
pendicular, or full of deep holes and
gullies, worn into the original pave
of the GOths and Romans, and never
repaired since their lOng-past day.
Up and down the stony alleys you
toll, in the damp and chilly autumn
weather, jostled off the foot-wide
sidewalks by the motley throng,
which regards you, if at all, with un-
friendly stares as representatives of
the dreadful nation of Yankee por-
cos pigs of whom these people have
chiefly heard during the last year or
two through the woes of their broth
ers across the Spanish border. At
every step you are importuned by
beggars in filthy rags, in whose out
stretched hands you discern unpleas-
ant probabilities of smallpox, plague
and leprOsy-whilet their owners, with
fawning lips and hate in their eyes,
call upon NOssa Senhora and all her
saints to reward you for milres be-
slowed
Talk about following in the foot
steps of antiquity! In this old, old
city of eighty odd churches there are
several whose foundations were laid
more than a thousand years ago.
The oldest building in Oporto is the
chapel of Cedo Zelda, built A. d. 500.
by the Visi-goth King Theodomic,
and still not altogether a ruin. Next
in quaintness of architecture, though
not in age, is the Tore dos Clergios
(Tower of the Clergy, small church
built about two centuries ago, with
the highest tower in Portugal-an
odd, square spire Of something over
two hundred feet, which has served
since time out of mind as a landmark
for sailors far out at sea. The church
OF Nossa Senhora da Lappe-a fine
CorInthian edifice of ancient date. is
best known to the reading Lublic
through the bad pun which genera
tiods of tourists have perpettated
concerning its da-Lappa- dated condi-
tion.
The great cathedral was noble
edifice way back in the dawn of Por-
tuguese history, but has been atroci-
ously modernised by nineteenth CEN
tury vandals. You may spend many
pleasant and profitable days explor-
ing these dim sancturies and tracing
therein the earmarks of changing re-
ligions. Some of them speak of the
days of Moorish supremacy, when
the turbaned hordes of Abdul Has |
san overran the peninsula; others of
the brief but brilliant reign of AL
mansar de Cordova, which began in
the year 500; others of the French
and Gascons, whose turn came in 999.
and others of rollicking King John
and the later and gentler Pedros.
There used to be an incredible num-
Der OF converts in Oporto, but they
were mostly destroyed during the
memorable seige of 1847, which nearly
annihilated the city and wiped out a
at a. I~eI..Iation and otba-s
nave more recently been appropriated
by the government to secular uses
On the high bluffs on the east bank
OF the Douro stands the famous con-
vent Da Sierra, which at one time WAS
said to be the richest in the world
Inc monastery of Soa Bento, beautl-
ful beyond compare, with its wealth
OF carving. quaint arches and Moor ;
courts, was converted
into barracks a few years ago. and ,
now horses munich scant rations in ,
the cloisters where monks mumbled s
their Ave Marias," while undersized, {
Portuguese soldiers plav &
cards in the long refractory and I
'cuss" with superabundance of his $
heir hard lot of hunger and inact- |
witty. .
One of the handsomest structures +
n oporto is the Archbishop's palace, j
ltuated on jutting rock so high in i
lir that it reminds you of Mahomet's t
oliin, suspended between earth and d
heaven, and you marvel that it has f
lot dropped off long ago upon the t
lousetops directly beneath. Amer q
cans are not in high favor with his n
Vorshipful Highness just at present, Il