page_title: Belém (Lisbon)
section_title: Brigantine era
hierarchical_section_title: Belém (Lisbon) / History / Brigantine era
caption_attribution_description: English: Lisbon
context_page_description: Belém is a freguesia and district of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Belém is located in western Lisbon, to the west of Ajuda and Alcântara and directly east of Lisbon's border with Oeiras. Belém is famous as a museum district, as the home of many of the most notable monuments of Lisbon and Portugal alike, such as the Belém Tower, the Jerónimos Monastery, the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, and Belém Palace. The population in 2011 was 16,528.
context_section_description: With the restoration of Portuguese independence in 1640, the monastery regained much of its former importance, becoming the burial place for the royal pantheon; within its walls four of the eight children of King John IV were entombed: the Infante Teodósio (1634–1653), the Infanta Joana (1636–1653), King Afonso VI (1643–1683) and Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705). On 29 September 1855, the body of King Afonso VI was transported to the royal pantheon of the House of Braganza in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, along with his three brothers and sister. During the reign of Peter II, in 1682, the bodies of King Sebastian and Cardinal Henrique were buried in the transept chapels.
  The same monarch ordered construction of "a tower of four storeys" (in the words of Damião de Góis) on a basaltic outcropping of rocks in the Tagus near its north bank, using some of the stones being collected to build the Jerónimos Monastery. This was the foundation of the bastion of the Belém Tower (Torre de Belém). After completion of these two construction projects, a number of manorss in the surrounding countryside were established by the nobility. As the population continued to slowly grow, the demographics of the suburb changed sufficiently that Friar Nicolau de Oliveira indicated in 1620 that it was within the city limits. New convents appeared in the area, and between 1551 and 1591 (as noted by Vieira da Silva) the civil parish of Ajuda (Nossa Senhora da Ajuda) was created, consisting of a vast territory with clerics installed in the Monastery of Belém.
  The Belém district became increasingly popular after King John V acquired estates and properties in the area to develop defenses for Lisbon. Carvalho da Costa noted in his Corografia Portuguesa that "...immediately in front of Junqueira is the locality of Belém, so healthy and appreciable that the naturals and visitors want to live there, and those who for want of comfort can not live [there] are continually competing for that site. In it there are houses, noble estates, nobility, nobles of the first order in the Kingdom; and if the land permitted more palaces or buildings, the city would continue unto that site".
  In 1770, during the reign of Joseph I, the ecclesiastical parish of São Pedro de Alcântara, including the territory east of the Alcântra River, was established, thus deannexing it from Ajuda. The barrio of Belém was officially constituted with its own judicial and administrative authority, and included the ecclesiastical parish of Ajuda, part of Alcântra and Santa Isabel, as well as the parishes of Benfica, Belas, Barcarena and Carnaxide.
  Belém and Ajuda were the areas around Lisbon suffering the least destruction in the great Lisbon earthquake and the following tsunami on 1 November 1755. Many of the survivors who lost their homes were installed in numerous tents and shacks in the region. King Joseph and his court moved to a complex of tents and barracks located on a part of the royal estates where the Ajuda National Palace would be built. This relocation by the King and his prime minister and Secretary of State, the Marquess of Pombal, attracted commerce and made Belém-Ajuda the centre of the state bureaucracy during the third quarter of the 18th century. A military presence was also deemed important by the government: two regimental infantry barracks under the Count of Lippe, and a cavalry regiment under Mecklenburg were installed. These events consolidated the integration of Belém-Ajuda into the city of Lisbon.
  During the latter part of the 18th century, the monarchy slowly extricated itself from  Belém-Ajuda. In 1794, a fire in Ajuda destroyed the Royal Tent (Tenda Real), forcing the royal family to abandon the location and take residence in the Queluz National Palace. A lack of funds had delayed completion of the Ajuda National Palace, so with the French invasion in 1807, the royal family fled to Rio de Janeiro. When they returned to Portugal in 1821, King John VI installed them in the Necessidades and Bemposta Palaces.
  Belém gradually evolved into an industrial zone, par
caption: Bom Sucesso Convent, built 1639.
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