The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-27
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
SIGHTS AND LANDM1RK or ONE
OE7HE
oi"est Citfesin Europe in the Footsteps
Of Antiquity,


Oporto, Portugal, Nov. 2.-You ma
think it an easy matter to ''do" tn
sights of compact city of only on
hundred and ninety thousand-until yo
nave tried it in Oporto, and foun
more WEAKNESS of the flesh, and espec
lally of the feet, than in any mountain
climbing you ever encountered. Will
the horizontal streets nearest the qua,
are wider, well-built and comparativel.
level, most of the Others are totally i'm
passable for wheeled vehicles, beins
either too narrow, or almost perpendic
ular, or full of deep holes and gullies
worn into the original pave of tht
Goths and Romans and never repaired
since their long-past day. Up and dowr
the stony alleys you toll, in the damn
and chilly autumn weather, jostled of
the foot-wide sidewalks by the molly
throng, which regards you, if at all
with unfriendly stares as representa-
tives of the dreadful nation of Yankee
porcos'' (pigs), of whom these people
have chiefly heard during the last yeal
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 unpleasant probable
tiles of smallpox, plague and leprosy,
while their owners. with fawning lips
and hate in their eyes, call upon Nossa
Senhora and all her saints to reward
you for milreis bestowed.
Talk about following in the footsteps
of antiquity! In this old, old city of
eighty odd churches are several whose
foundations were laid more than a
thousand years ago. The oldest build
ing In Oporto is the chapel of Cedo Fei-
da, built A. D. 500 by the Visi-Goth
king Theodomic, and still not altogether
q ruin. Next in quaintness of architec-
ture, though not in age, is the Tore dos
Clergios Grower of the Clergy, a 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 landmark
for sailors far out at sea- The church
of Nossa Senhora da Lappa, a fine Co.
rinthian edifice of ancient date, Is best
known to the reading public through
the bad pun which generations of tour
lists have perpetrated concerning it's da-
Lappa- dated condition. The great ca
thedral was a noble edifice away back
in the dawn of Portuguese history but
has been atrociously modernized by
nineteenth century vandals. You may
spend many pleasant and profitable
days exploring these dim sanctuaries
and tracing therein the earmarks of
changing religions. Some of them
speak Of the days of Moorish suprema-
,pIo -
Hassan over-ran the peninsula; others
of the brief but brilliant reign of AL
mansar de Cordova which began in the
year $780, Others othe French and Gas
cons, whose turn came in 999; and 9TH
ers 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 me- 1
morable seige of 1S47, which nearly an
initiated the city and wiped out third
of its population and Others have more |
recently been appropriated by the gov |
eminent to secular uses. On the high I
bluffs Of the east bank of the Douro |
stands the famoue convent Da Sierra, |
which at one time was said to be the /
richest in the world. The monastery of
Sac Bento, beautiful beyond compare
with it's wealth of carving, quaint arch
es and Observation-Disclosures courts, was
converted into barracks few years
ago; and now horses MUNICH scant ra-
tions in the cloisters where monks
their Ave Marias, while I'M
der-sized, under-fed Portuguese soldiers
play cards in the long refectory and
"cuss" with superabundance of his
their hard lot of hunger and inactivity.
One of the handsomest structures in
Oporto Is the archbishop's palace, sit
uated on a jutting rock SO high in air
that it reminds you of Mahomet's coffin,
suspended between earth and heaven,
and you marvel that it has not dropped
off long ago upon the house-tops d.
rectly beneath. Americans are not in
high favor with his worshipful high
ness Just at present, and it is useless to
try to obtain an audience; but you may
De graciously permitted to view the
grand stairway-a famous work of art
which stands about third in the stair
ways Of the world, reckoning that Of the J
Few Congressional Library of WASH ;
ngton at the head-which leads to the I
lrchipiscopal apartments.
g Next III pOlUl OIL Ueduty, IL uUl III CUSl-
mess, is the English Factory House. of
white granite, with deliberately wrought ,
acade. 1t comprises on magnificent
Gale all the appurtenances of an up-to-
late clubhouse, with ballroom, re- q
reshment hall, library, reading-rooms, q
ard-rooms, ct cetera; and here the u
arge but lonesome English colony II
ponds its leisure hours. lf
The new "Bosa or Exchange, once n
he monastery of San Francisco, is one q
f the most beautifully decorated struc- :.
ares In Portugal. The walls and floors
it's grand saloon are entirely covered -
18th inlaid devices in the rarest woods t'
{ Brazil highly polished, but in their :
atural colors-pale green's dark reds, u
1se-pink, browns, grays, ivory white
nd ebony, curiously intermingled y
here are suites of lofty apartments, all u
aborately decorated, a splendid glass al
)vered court set with palms and a OF
agnificent reception-room, wherein the q
resident of the Bosa, with the dignita- III
es of the city are wont to welcome
strangers, and now and
zen give swell fetes to the beauty and
rivalry Of Oporto
The mint should be visited, where the VI
,-iJ,,,r 40 ,,gyl.