From Mythical to Medieval City
The evolution of Lisbon from prehistoric times through to the Middle Ages can be seen as a series of phases in the life of the city, each of which has left a significant mark on its character. The first of these stages is the very ancient and indeed elaborately fabled city of pre-classical origins. It is a period shrouded in myth as well as the time when primitive settlements first grew up around the Tagus estuary. The next was the Roman imperium during which Lisbon not only became part of a world empire but also became a Latinized city, pre-eminently through its adoption of a vernacular version of Latin. When the Roman Empire collapsed into barbarism, Lisbon joined the league of Christian kingdoms of Iberia, which were to be overrun by the Moorish invasion of the eighth century. Although few physical relics of this period survive, it was important as the time when the Church became established as a leading institution in the city before the Muslim invasion of the eighth century. The establishment of the Moorish caliphate had a profound effect on the city, not only in introducing sophisticated science and technology into its crafts and administration but adding something languid and Eastern that has remained in its character and can still be savoured in the very air of the Alfama district. Four centuries later, in the twelfth century, Lisbon was captured by Portugal’s first king, Afonso Henriques, and Christianity was restored. The city expanded considerably into a cosmopolitan, commercial port from which the exploration of entirely new worlds overseas in America, Africa and Asia began. That exploration, in turn, enabled the even more spectacular growth of the city as the leading trading centre of Europe in the early sixteenth century.
The earliest accounts of Lisbon, as of other ancient European cities, are to be found in Greek legend, often vague and obscure.1 The abiding story, recounted over the ages, is that the city was founded by Ulysses when he travelled westward to the extreme ends of the known world where the fabled gardens of Hesperides were thought to be located. Ulysses must have made his discovery on one of his many voyages after the Trojan War, a period conveniently shrouded in myth and make-belief.
Equally convenient for those wanting to believe in legend, the hinterland of Lisbon, particularly the fertile valley of Colares and the mysterious Mons Lunae or Sacred Mountain at Sintra, was just the right setting for the enactment of heroic deeds. Here were all the physical ingredients of myth: a fertile valley where fruit abounded, a river winding its way to the sea, in the background wooded, green slopes, the perfect repose for nymphs. In this same, Poussin-like landscape, Heracles is said to have battled with a monster that rampaged on the coast. When the god had done his work, the grateful inhabitants dragged the body of the monster away in hefty chains.2 Nearby, the lofty Cabo da Roca, at the rocky land’s end and often swirling in mists, provided the ideal setting for worshipping the gods who were said to pass by the Cape during the night.3
The Renaissance Portuguese writers of the sixteenth century, who sealed the story of Ulysses’ foundation of the city, did not worry unduly about the exact moment when he arrived on the shores of the Tagus. Camões, the epic poet of the nation whose Lusiads (1572) tells the story of the Portuguese exploration of the sea routes to India, says, almost in passing, that Lisbon was
Named for her founder, that coiner of words
Through whose cunning Troy was burned
And the city was founded by Ulysses on the exact spot
Where the Tagus mingles its fresh water
And white sands with the salt sea.4
Camões’ passing reference to the myth was taken up some 50 years later in the monumental work of Gabriel Pereira de Castro, Ulisseia (1636).5 Pereira de Castro was an eminent lawyer who had been a professor at Coimbra. He had written weighty tomes on law and the constitution but clearly yearned to achieve literary, rather than academic, fame. His work, another epic, was intended to adapt Homer’s Iliad to the Portuguese experience, balancing Camões’ evocation of Virgil’s Aeneid in the Lusiads. Like Camões, Pereira de Castro celebrates the feat of overseas discovery by the Portuguese explorers, choosing the lofty heroic mould to set the seal on Portuguese nationhood once and for all. Pereira de Castro’s Ulysses arrives at a place where ships may put in safely at harbour6 and, once ashore, finds its favourable hinterland, fertile in fruit and capable of supporting good agriculture. This is the same Arcadian land that Ulysses was said to have found at nearby Sintra and Colares.
The area in which these myths have been set coincides with the area where the oldest evidence of human habitation has actually been found.7 A plan reconstructing the Paleolithic and Neolithic dwellings in the City Museum (Museu da Cidade) shows a concentration of population to the north and west of the existing city, slightly away from the estuary of the Tagus itself. The Museum’s plan traces sites that may go back 150,000 years. That dating suggests that the area was inhabited by Neanderthal man prior to the arrival from Africa of Homo sapiens, now dated about 35,000 years ago.8
Definitive evidence of human habitation in Portugal goes back to a much more recent period. At the Coa Valley, in north-central Portugal, occupation has been dated to about 25,000 years ago. The remains there cover an area of about 17 kilometres of valley; the evidence points to the existence of Stone Age cave-dwellers who survived by hunting wild animals such as bison, bull and stag. Images of these animals, and others, are engraved on the walls of caves. Engravings of this kind have been found closer to the Lisbon area in Upper Alentejo. At Escoural near Evora, engravings of bison, horse and curious hybrid creatures, partly human, have been dated to about 20,000 years ago.9 They show that these cave-dwellers were concerned with representing their environment and trying to interpret the forces that appeared to govern it. The whole area is also rich in Megalithic remains of a more recent period when agriculture and stock raising were well established.
Prehistoric stone structures (dolmens and cromlechs) may be seen at Guadaloupe which date from about 4000 BC. The cromlech at Almendres, standing in a clearing of cork oaks, consists of up to 95 granite monoliths arranged in an oval pattern; at Valverde the anta of Zambujeiro is part of a funerary monument consisting of a gallery and dolmen full of relics, now transferred to the nearby museum. Monuments and relics of the Alentejan type are found in the immediate area of Lisbon. Tombs were typically covered with a removable stone slab so that further bodies could be interred in them.
Just as the benefits of the hinterland were important in the mythical foundation story so in real life they were important to the survival of Stone Age man. First and foremost in importance was the plentiful supply of water — streams and founts are found all over the hills and dales of the city area. The hills themselves provided good defensive sites; there was an abundant supply of fuel in the form of wood. The forests were also the home of wild animals — stags and bison — which became an important source of food for early man. Nearby the river provided another kind of food, fish, which entered and remained in the national diet.10 Taking to the water also proved to be a convenient method of transport between communities dispersed along the shores of the estuary and the coast.
There is a substantial collection of remains at the City Museum dating from this early period. Seashell waste, found in the Tagus Valley, suggest that there was already a settlement in the area from the period between 7000 BC and 5000 BC.11 There are examples of storage jars, vessels of every shape and size, statuary objects, kitchen utensils and, from a later period, ceramic works of various types. By this time the kiln had been invented; flint sickles and hoes were in use; a form of loom has also been found. Funerary remains of various types, indicating a mix of cultures of the indigenous inhabitants, continue to be found.12
Gradually the objects show greater decorative sophistication, such as a small dagger-like plate cut in the shape of a fish and marked with rings and circles, or large plates with various ridges and circular decorations. Considerable evidence of similar human settlement has been found in the Sintra area, particularly in the valley of São Martinho to the north of the town and in Estefania. Metal objects suggest occupation during the Bronze Age, when axes and primitive chisels were made. This was the period when a plethora of tribes occupied central Portugal, later known as the Roman province of Lusitania.
A.H. de Oliveira Marques suggests that this was a period of violent conflict when invaders — Lusitanian, Carthaginian and Greek — added to the turmoil of the fighting that was already taking place among the local Iberian tribes.13 Knowledge of this time is still sketchy but it can be dated from about 1000 BC. Celtic influence was strongest in the north but would have permeated the south as well, a fact already noted by Pliny, who had served in Iberia as Proconsul in the first century A D. The Celts were skilled in iron, bronze and gold work; they brought considerable sophistication to the ancient indigenous worship of the solar and lunar deities said to have been practised at the Cabo da Roca. Their castros or hilltop settlements were scattered throughout the territory. In many areas they were built on the sites of already existing prehistoric structures. In turn the Romans and then the Moors built upon the same fortress locations.
Greek and Phoenician communities were already clustered around the coastal areas, with considerable agriculture carried out in the hinterland. Phoenician Olisipo dates from 1000 BC or even earlier, as remains found in the area of Sé Cathedral show. The Phoenician traders, who dealt in gold, silver and tin, brought with them a culture of the sea and a new cosmopolitanism, based on extensive trading links which covered the entire Mediterranean area. They were succeeded by the Carthaginians, another maritime people who controlled most of the North African coast and the strategic Straits of Gibraltar.
Strabo, in his Geography, written in the last years of the first century BC, alludes to the fierceness of the Lusitanians and to the considerable prosperity of Tartesso or Megalithic Lusitanian society, which was politically, as well as economically, sophisticated. He contrasts the prosperity of the central southern region with other parts of Iberia, where mountainous terrain or more extreme climate makes for more difficult cultivation and, with it, less economic development and contact with the outside world.
This first ‘golden’, quasi-mythical age of Lisbon ended quite abruptly when, in 218 BC, the Roman legions marched into Iberia, beginning a colonization that was to have a profound cultural impact, which has endured to modern times. The Roman invasion was part of the global struggle between Rome and Carthage; Rome was determined to dislodge the Carthaginians from the entire area of the Western Mediterranean. Ironically, in areas where the cosmopolitan influence of Carthage was strongest, such as in the central province of Lusitania (in which the district of Scallabitanus covered the Tagus estuary and the Sintra area) assimilation of Roman culture was least difficult. Here the local Lusitani tribe was interbred with Celts and the Conii. The Celtiberians, as they are known, had established important trading links with North Africa, enjoying considerable prosperity, which was partly the result of a rich agriculture practised on the plains between the Tagus and the Douro. They were ensconced in impregnable circular fortresses on strategically linked hilltops. Their livelihood came mainly from pastoral agriculture.
Nevertheless the Romans could not properly control Lisbon and the vital Tagus estuary, which linked it to the sea and southward to the Mediterranean without subduing the considerable local resistance of the Lusitanians, a fiercely independent, martial people. Their leader, Viriatus, organized an effective resistance to Roman occupation, preventing a total Roman takeover for nearly a decade. He was only defeated by an act of treachery among his own men, bribed by Roman gold. Viriatus’ death in 139 BC was a serious setback for the Lusitani. It heralded the beginning of the second phase of Lisbon’s early history as a city, although the struggle to remain independent of Roman rule was by no means over.
Both Strabo and Diodorus Siculus record a fierce resistance that the Lusitanians put up against further Roman encroachment, with renewed campaigns in 80–72 BC. This time the leader came from a very different social background, being none other than the ‘hero’ Sertorius.14 Sertorius was a Roman general, based in Lisbon, who became a champion of the Lusitanian tribe. On account of his political stance he had been driven into exile but returned from North Africa to lead the campaign against Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Sertorius was assassinated in 73 AD but his action held up Roman occupation. Nor did the Roman imperium ever properly extend to Trás-os-Montes, which, as always, remained cut off from mainstream developments. Lusitania did not formally become a Roman province until 25 AD, although long before that the southern areas of modern Portugal had become Latinized.
The Romans had invaded Iberia for commercial reasons and to challenge the Carthaginian base in the south of Spain. They had not been concerned, at least initially, with conquering territory, and whilst introducing a centralized administration they were tolerant of local customs and even of local religion. J. Cardim Ribeiro suggests that in Lusitania the worship of the Emperor coexisted and was mingled with the traditional worship of lunar and aquatic deities.15 Pagan cults of the serpent and the lizard continued covertly for some generations. To these indigenous practices were added Roman cults of Jupiter, Diana and Saturn. Ex votos, dedicated to these gods, have been found in various sites in the city. Such mixtures of culture were typical of cosmopolitan, far-flung empires, something which Portugal as a nation would itself experience in later times.
As Roman occupation continued, particularly during the Pax Romana, the period which began with the reign of Augustus Caesar in the last part of the first century BC, Lusitania, like other parts of the Empire, flourished. This was a period of administrative consolidation, during which Roman law was increasingly applied and coinage, standards of weights and measures and the Julian calendar became widely used. The introduction of Latin as the lingua franca meant easier conditions for trade and business; at the same time, the infrastructure was improved by the building of roads between vital points in the country. Olisipo, facing the sea and the southern trade routes to North Africa, was at the centre of the Roman network as it had been of the Phoenician trading routes. By the time the Roman grip on Iberia was consolidated, Rome had become mistress of the Mediterranean, having finally destroyed Carthage in 146 BC. Trade routes from the western part of the Empire could now be securely guaranteed. In 138 BC Decimus Junius Brutus undertook reinforcement of the walls of Olisipo, suggesting that the area to the north, inhabited by Celtiberians and Lusitanians, remained hostile to Roman occupation. Meanwhile, the city itself and the entire region continued to prosper, its links being directly to the emperor rather than through the Senate as was usually the case in the administration of Roman provinces outside Italy.
This economic expansion had a considerable effect on the immediate hinterland, based on the export of agricultural products such as olive oil, wine, salt and fish products, particularly the fish condiment of garum, produced in Setúbal, which was exported directly to Rome by sea. Another, more modest source of wealth came from mining for silver and lead. Although the Romans kept the greatest wealth for themselves, there was also opportunity for indigenous inhabitants to prosper. The Romanized Lusitanians, now speaking the local version of Latin which eventually became Galaico-Portuguese, tended to come from the decuriones, or middle-class property owners distinguishable from the senatores or Roman aristocratic administrators but considerably above the plebs or ordinary citizens. Service in the Roman army could lead to membership of the equites, a class just below the senatorial class from which advancement to the very highest social rank was a possibility. In Olisipo citizens had the same rights as their Roman counterparts.16 Gradually local people, including Greeks who were long settled in the city, would also be admitted to the public service, eventually taking up even the important magisterial positions. As in other parts of the Roman Empire, the entire economic system depended on the institution of slavery. The slaves, drawn from the indigenous population, had no rights of citizenship, yet they were the source of cheap labour on which the prosperity of all well-established citizens, Roman or Luso-Roman, depended.
Evidence of the local prosperity in Roman times is spread across the Lisbon region, particularly in the form of funerary monuments. Several of these can be seen in the City Museum’s collection, including lapidary remains found in the grounds of the castle of São Jorge. One such records that Voluscia Tusca, daughter of Gaius, lies buried beneath. Another sarcophagus, decorated with an elaborate frieze, is inscribed with the name of a member of the Galeria tribe, one of the most populous in Roman times. Another is inscribed with the gloomy words ‘Everything earthly is destined to go.’ Inscriptions to the emperor are found on numerous lapidary remains. Other remains also show the extent of sophistication of Olisipo as a city — fountains, temples, theatres, public baths, houses with efficient drainage systems — were features of this well-to-do Roman town. To the east were cemeteries; one necropolis was in the area of São Domingues monastery.
Temples built in the centre of the city were dedicated to the gods Jupiter, Diana and Cybele (around whom grew the cult of the eternal mother — of earth itself). In some cases Christian churches were later built upon these ancient sites — under the floors of Sé Cathedral, layers of the remains of ages have been uncovered.17 The Christian church was built on what was the patio of the Moorish mosque, which, in turn, straddled a Roman street, with walls and drains on its sides. All these places of worship had been located in highly urbanized settings, close to densely populated areas. Diana’s temple was in the forum, somewhere in between the estuary and the ridge on which São Jorge’s castle still dominates the skyline. A Roman theatre was located in the Rua da Saudade, running up to the castle walls. A lintel marked ‘Main Entrance’ was excavated recently. A mixture of local marble (from the Sintra area) and Italian marble from Carrara has been identified in the remains. A stone’s throw away is the present-day Taborda Theatre, established in the nineteenth century. The continuous production of theatrical events in such a confined geographical area over the millennia provides a striking example of the continuity of certain features of civic life. Below the ramparts of the citadel, the centre of the present city remained semi-rural with gardens and orchards still reflected in its modern street names.
The Roman city was also well supplied with water, an essential resource for Roman urban life. Drinking water and water for thermal baths were brought to every part of the city by a subterranean system. Given Lisbon’s hilly terrain, that was no mean engineering feat. Evidence of the system has come to light over the centuries — after the earthquake of 1755 and much more recently following excavations for the building of the metro in the Praça de Figueira in 2000. A vast cemetery was uncovered underneath the square, with numerous epigraphic inscriptions on the stonework. During excavations pieces of Roman ceramic plate were dug up with other more ancient fossils, indicating continuous inhabitance of the Baixa area since earliest times. In the castle walls and at the Casa dos Bicos, the remains are ornate, displaying all the hallmarks of sophisticated art. A series of streets crossed the city from west to east. At Rossio one of the signal points, which were placed strategically across the urban area, has been uncovered. This was already an area of dense population, as it has remained, with a population of about 30,000.
The Roman imperium in Iberia was challenged early in the fifth century at the same time as Alaric the Visigoth sacked Rome (410 AD). The Germanic invasions of the Peninsula began in 407, according to Oliveira Marques, and were made by sea as well as by land.18 They coincided with considerable local disturbances (bagaudas) which had already upset the calm of Roman centres in the north such as Braga. There is evidence that the local insurgents collaborated with the invaders. Nevertheless, although these barbarian incursions compromised Roman control, they did not altogether threaten the Roman way of life, particularly in the towns and cities. The invaders were more interested in the benefits of a rich southern agriculture than in attempting to replace existing political and administrative institutions. Nor had they come in numbers sufficient to displace the indigenous populations. Instead they looked to the fertile soils of the northern parts of Iberia, including areas of what is now northern Portugal and Galicia, as good productive land from which they could make a comfortable living. In due course they moved south, toward the Lisbon area, but tended to avoid direct conflict with the inhabitants of the towns.
Olisipo itself was by now a well-established Roman town with the usual benefits of municipal planning and infrastructure. Its prosperous citizens spread themselves across the whole area, building villas in the planalto or flat plain north-westwards toward Mafra. These patterns of civic life firmly identify Lisbon as a Latin city — the cultural heritage of the Roman period (which was largely assimilated by barbarian invaders) sprung roots which endured for much longer than the mere physical buildings of the city, though the evidence suggests these were impressive. Something profound and lasting had been superimposed on the complex, cosmopolitan Phoenician and Greek city by the long period of Roman occupation.
During the fifth century the Suevi occupied Portugal whilst the Vandals and Visigoths invaded Spain. The Suevi, who had come from the Rhineland, were a warrior people who had been constantly on the move and were now tempted to settle in the gentle Luso-Galician lands they had reached. This area of the north-western Peninsula had already formed something of a distinct cultural region toward the end of the Roman period. The capital of the Suevic kingdom was established at the regional centre of Braga (Dume) with occupation of Oporto, further south as well. Much of the information about the Suevic kingdom comes from Hydatius, Bishop of Chaves, who acted as a negotiator between the Suevi and the Romans. He also had dealings with the Visigothic Kingdom of Spain. There was also much turbulence during this period; Roman Conimbriga, for example, was destroyed.
The Suevi did not attempt to obliterate Roman custom where they existed, nor did they change the lingua franca of this part of Iberia. Their own language had, in any case, never been written down. The consolidation of their base in the north contributed to the growing identity of that area, which eventually became the foundation of the nation of Portugal itself. When they moved further south, they practised the same policy of tolerance and alliance with the localized Roman communities. The Roman governor of Olisipo, one Lusidius, welcomed Suevic leaders to the city and formed an alliance with them. Nevertheless his efforts did not prevent a sacking of the city in 469.
These political developments encouraged the assimilation of Suevic and Roman culture at a time when Roman rule itself was collapsing. By 476 the Western Roman Empire went into extinction. The pattern of cultural integration which marked its passing was an early example of a toleration of foreigners that has been the common experience of the inhabitants of the Portuguese territory. That toleration continued under Moorish rule, where, in accordance with Koranic imperative, considerable tolerance was shown to believers of other religions, including Christianity and Judaism.
As the relics of Roman administration disappeared, the Catholic Church emerged as the leading political institution; the Suevic Kingdom in Portugal was becoming Christianized, after more than a century of contact with Christian subjects within its jurisdiction. But it was with the arrival of St Martin at Dume, before 550, that the official conversion took place. St Martin is said to have saved the life of the son of the Suevic king, Theodemir, and, perhaps as a reward, was duly installed at Braga as archbishop. At Dume he rebuilt the church dedicated to his namesake, St Martin of Tours, who in the Middle Ages was to become a great cult figure after whom many churches were named. St Martin had the vision of a secular kingdom but one that was Roman in its religion and culture. It would also have the capacity to absorb pagan features in its ritual. The authority of the Church was confirmed by the holding of religious councils at Braga in 563 and again in 572. The result of these councils was a reorganization and strengthening of the Church by the rearrangement of sees and synods, both within the Suevic kingdom and in neighbouring Galicia. These developments confirmed a cultural identity for the northern region which was later to prove decisive in the formation of the kingdom of Portugal.
St Martin’s political views were later reflected in the code of St Isidore of Seville, which similarly aimed to apply a system of law to Romans, Suevi and Goths alike. Within these basically theocratic states, commerce was considered to be a morally dubious activity. Its practice was left to the Jewish minority. As in other parts of Europe, the exclusion of Jews from the professions meant that they became dangerously marginalized from mainstream society. Nevertheless, they were left to practise their own religion until the Inquisition was set up in the sixteenth century. Occasionally things were less welcome to the citizens of Ulixbuna (as Lisbon had become known), such as the tribute demanded after a Visigothic invasion. The Visigothic kingdom in Spain and the Suevic kingdom in Portugal survived as theocracies until the invasion of the Moors at the beginning of the eighth century. While the physical relics from this period in Portugal are few, the establishment of the Church as a political institution of significance in the affairs of the city was something that would prove enduring and would be restored after the next phase of Muslim occupation, which was to last for four centuries.
The Moorish period began with the tentative crossing of Moorish troops from North Africa in 710 under the command of Tarif Ibn Malik. The purpose of his mission was to test what resistance there might be to Muslim annexation of lands reputed to be rich in human and natural resources. The Moorish invaders were surprised not to meet any local opposition; Tarif Ibn Malik reported back to the governor of Tangier, Tarif Ibn Ziyad, that a full-scale invasion was feasible. This took place the following summer in 711 under the governor’s own command. Late in the day, the Visigothic king, Roderick, who had been campaigning against the Basques in the north, realized the danger. He returned to Córdoba and rallied what he could of a mixed band of Iberian troops. By this time, the Moorish army had had time to ensconce itself at Algeciras where it waited. When Roderick was at last ready to attack, which he did, his divided forces could not match the discipline of the invading army. The Christian coalition was roundly defeated; within a matter of months, the Moorish generals swept northwards, taking Seville, Mérida and Toledo on the way. The territory of Portugal was in Muslim hands by 713; the Moors were led by Abelaziz Ibn Musa, the son of Tariq Ibn Malik.
These Moorish incursions began a chapter of immense significance in the history of Iberia. Although the territory of Portugal began to be ‘liberated’ in the twelfth century, Moorish rule on the Peninsula as a whole lasted until the end of the caliphate in Granada in 1492. It was not, of course, a period of continuous calm. Local resistance to Moorish rule began within a decade of the foreign arrival and in the far north of Spain and in difficult, mountainous territory in the north of Portugal, the rule of the Moorish rulers was shaky, and in part non-existent. Christian states like Asturias were established in the north and the caliphs of the south had to mount an annual summer campaign against the Christians to protect their precious Iberian territories. Sometimes alliances formed across the religious divide in recognition of the fact that the Moorish presence in Al Andalus was the most politically significant in the Peninsula.
Moorish rule affected Iberia in many different ways: Lisbon, at the western point of the Peninsula, shared that experience as much as other Iberian cities. One of the abiding cultural legacies of the occupation, particularly in the earlier centuries, was that of cultural and indeed ethnic mixing. The attitude of the Muslim rulers was based on a religious precept but undoubtedly was shaped by pragmatic considerations as well. The Koran teaches a respect for all religions (including Christianity and Judaism) whilst the small number of the Moors in proportion to the indigenous population (estimated at between 40,000 and 300,000) suggested the wisdom of a liberal system of governance.
Nevertheless peaceful integration was not always possible. The threat from the Christian kingdoms of the northern part of Iberia was matched by internal insurrection. From time to time dangerous, radical sects appeared, as in 944, leading to their suppression and an anti-Christian mood. The arrival of the puritanical Almovarids, toward the close of the eleventh century, ended the policy of tolerance altogether. The fusion of culture and religion so characteristic of Mozarab Balata, in which Lisbon was situated, was to be severely tested. By the time of the so-called Reconquest,19 the tradition of tolerance between religions had entirely died.
Moorish rule in the Garbe (as the Portuguese caliphate was known) was concentrated on the south (the area of modern Algarve) with the city of Silves as its capital. The southern part of the country had become very populous, rivalling centres in the north. But like their predecessors, the Suevi and the Romans, the Moors were content to build upon local structures and, where it made sense, to amalgamate customs and practices with their own. The Roman territorium or province was replaced by the Moorish kura; the conventus or constituency by the qarya. The feeling of administrative continuity added to a gradual assimilation of Christians to Moorish rule and the development of a distinctive, mixed Mozarab culture.
The cultural and economic significance of the Moorish occupation of Balata, the province that stretched from Lisbon to Santarém, was considerable. Not only were practical sciences like irrigation effective in raising agricultural production but Portuguese culture was influenced by the language, law and customs of Islam in many different ways. The most graphic examples of this influence was in architecture, as was the case across Iberia and in the art of ceramics which remained a main form of artistic expression when Portugal eventually emerged as a Christian nation in the twelfth century.
Lisbon was always the jewel in the crown of Moorish Balata — a series of fortresses at Santarém and at Sintra formed a protective ring around the capital. This protection was much needed since there were a number of Christian attempts to take the city. It was attacked in 796 by the King of Asturias and in 844 by the Normans from the sea but a stout resistance saw off the enemy. It was sacked again by Spanish forces in 851. Another Norman invasion, centred on Alcácer do Sal, was defeated in 966. In the eleventh century the city was taken by the Christians, but was recaptured by Sid Ibn Abu Bakr in 1094 when Count Raymond of Burgundy was defeated outside the city’s smoking walls. In addition there were various internal Arab uprisings, sometimes led by disaffected Berbers, from the earliest times.
The hinterland of Lisbon, particularly in the fertile area of Colares and around the estuary of the Tagus, benefited from the sophistication of Moorish irrigation systems and methods of water storage. Wheat and barley, vegetables and fruit (including the grape) were grown in these areas adjacent to the city. Despite the Koranic injunction against drinking alcohol, the vine continued to be cultivated as it had been in Roman times. Ibn Muçana, mayor of Lisbon in the eleventh century, penned his ode to Alcabideche, then a small village in the footholds of the Sintra hills, praising among its products grain, onions and pumpkins.20 He and other Moorish poets enthused on the luxuriant vegetation which a plentiful supply of water allowed, as well as a rich wildlife which included much prized falcons.
The Moors were also responsible for rebuilding much of the city, which had fallen into ruins in Germanic times. The citadel of São Jorge, its rampant walls and all the main defensive structures of the modern city were put in place; a medina, mosques, fountains and governor’s residence were all constructed to embellish the city; ceramic arts of tiling and roofing were introduced. The area of Alfama just below the walls of São Jorge’s Castle, with its maze of winding streets, white houses and small hidden gardens or interior courtyards, is the most notably Moorish area. The castle was itself the seat of Moorish rule — the Alcáçova, as it was known, continued to be the principal residence of the early Portuguese kings. The Alfama itself is an inward-looking quarter: blank walls face streets which twist in complicated patterns; cobbled staircases descend steeply into obscure alleyways. There is always a surprise awaiting — either a sweeping vista or a dead end can greet the walker when turning a corner. The quarter lies protected by the shadow of the castle walls above it.21
The mood of Moorish Lisbon is well caught in José Saramago’s novel The History of the Siege of Lisbon, which tells the story of the city’s capture from the Moors in 1147 by Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal and known as the Conqueror. Here is an early morning scene of what could be an Islamic city anywhere across the Muslim world:
Much, much later, the first light of morning broke through behind the city, black against the light, little by little the minarets faded, and when the sun appeared, still invisible from this spot where we are standing, familiar voices could be heard echoing amongst the hills, those of the muezzins summoning the followers of Allah to prayer.22
One of Saramago’s turbanned muezzins is blind. Hearing the sound of rejoicing, he wonders if the infidels have been defeated by a response from Allah, who has heard the fervent prayers of the devout citizens and sent the angels Munkar and Nakir, guardians of his tomb, to exterminate the Christians.23 As Saramago shows, the defence of Lisbon rested upon the rampart fortifications, with São Jorge’s Castle at the high point on the ridges, the only access to the city from the north and east being through three gates of Martim Moniz, of Sol and of the Alfama itself. On the southern side was the gate of Alfofa, access to which was well-nigh impossible due to the precipitous rock faces rising from the estuary in front of it. Moreover from any point along the river, the invaders would have to cross difficult terrain to actually get to the bottom of these natural ramparts in the first place. Seen from their perspective, the city appeared as one vast impenetrable dome.
The exotic strain of Saramago’s account of the end of the Caliphate in Lisbon reflects a profound influence that the period has had in the imagination of the nation. Although the Christian reconquest has been traditionally seen as the resurgence of the Christian nation, the events that took place need to be set in the context of a rich, cross-cultural society which, in its cosmopolitan adoption of more than one set of norms and customs, set the scene for a country which was to become comfortable in overseas and far-flung lands. Centuries of Mozarabic life were not flung aside but synthesized into the fabric of the new nation.
At the head of this new revolution was the dashing figure of Afonso Henriques, a Burgundian prince who failed several times to take Lisbon either in 1137 or in 1140 on his second attempt. His campaigns, extending over several decades, were aimed at securing the northern territory of Portucale, the embryo of the Portuguese kingdom, soon to be recognized by Rome. When he did succeed in capturing Lisbon in 1147, seven years later, he had to rely on the support of a motley collection of English, German and Flemish mercenaries. The foreigners did not support him for nothing; their eyes were on the considerable spoils that Lisbon would have to offer. Rumour had it that great wealth had been amassed in the city by its Moorish rulers. This was the glittering prize the crusaders fought for.
A propaganda war was also fought on both sides. The Archbishop of Braga rallied the Christian side. He railed against the Moorish inhabitants of the city.
Go back unbidden to the land of the Moors where you came, with your luggage, money and goods and your women and children, leaving to us our own… You Moors and Moabites fraudulently seized the realm of Lusitania from your King and ours.24
The Moors were not impressed. They had occupied the city for centuries; it was clearly God’s wish that it should be Muslim. They had no intention of handing it over to infidels. After persistent attempts, English and Flemish troops eventually managed to drive the Moors back from western and eastern suburbs but the defenders, having nothing to lose, ensconced themselves in the citadel, where they fought off further attacks.
The siege lasted over four months; the Moorish garrison was reduced almost to starvation despite beginning with a large underground store of wheat and barley, dried figs and oil.25 The summer heat made conditions particularly unpleasant. There were rumours of cannibalism having broken out among a population that may have numbered 40,000. The propaganda war was also continued on both sides — the Christians trying to put the fear of God into the defenders, the defenders relying on the will of Allah to protect them. Miraculous events were reported in both camps; heroes such as Martim Moniz were later honoured by having parts of the city named after them. In the end it was the building of attacking towers by the English that enabled troops to storm the citadel. Once the crusading mercenaries breached the defences and entered the city, they indulged in uncontrolled pillage and debauchery — those inhabitants who could fled from the city in fear of their lives; others were massacred.
After the capture of Lisbon by Afonso Henriques, the Muwalladi population (Christians who had converted to Moorish rule) and remaining Moors tended to reside in certain designated areas or mourarias. Like the Jews, they were allowed to continue practising their faith without hindrance, although they were stigmatized as second-class citizens debarred from holding civil or military posts. An Englishman, Gilbert of Hastings, gained his reward for serving Afonso Henriques by being installed as the Bishop of Lisbon. A new cathedral, Sé, was built in the grounds of the principal mosque, as we have seen. The rest of the city was divided into nine parishes, each with its own church, of which three — São Vicente, Santa Justa and Nossa Senhora dos Mártires — survive.26
The cosmopolitan mix that all this entailed and the city’s web of foreign connections meant that the growth of medieval Lisbon as a seaport came as a natural cultural development. From earliest times Lisbon had had a maritime flavour; its experience of many seafaring nations — whether they were Phoenician, Greek or Roman — brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the various arts of navigation and commerce. During Moorish times one of the city gates opened directly on to the sea. Legend also played a part in the growing maritime identity of Al-Usbana or Moorish Lisbon. One story told of the embarkation of eight young voyagers who set sail to find the limits of the world. Whether they returned or not is unknown but the same quest was undertaken hundreds of years later by the Portuguese explorers of the Manueline Age. The notion that Lisbon had connections with the most distant places in the world was already part of its fabric, mythical and real.
The importance of the sea to Lisbon was marked in the growth of naval activities and installations, on the one hand, and the protectionist policies adopted towards fishing, on the other. Small single-mast boats were gradually replaced by more sophisticated, larger vessels of three masts. Eventually the caravel, swift and much admired abroad, enabled exploration of the far-off West African coast. Naval carpenters and shipwrights were awarded special privileges above other trades such as armourers or tailors27 so that the industry connected to the sea continued to attract recruits. Meanwhile, long-distance fishing and the preservation of fish by salting became part of the city’s life. By the fourteenth century Portuguese merchant shipping was established all over Europe. In the Low Countries factories were set up at Bruges and at Antwerp. There was a direct trading link to London. By the end of the century Lisbon had become a bustling seaport with 400 or 500 ships using the facilities of the harbour. The city lay strategically placed between Europe and Africa and, eventually, between Europe and America. Among the cargoes carried out of the port were those of cork, olive oil, wine, hides, wax and honey whilst metals, arms and textiles were imported.28 The impetus to sail further, particularly in a southerly direction, came in the next century, by which time the lure of gold and slaves from Africa encouraged further expansion of the Portuguese shipping trade. The new coinage, the cruzado, was minted in 1457.
The growth of Lisbon’s maritime trade had many effects, from the development of parts of the city to immigration by particular foreign nationals closely connected with the international commerce. While the area around Rossio continued to grow in importance, eclipsing the eastern ridges of the castle and the Alfama, the land adjacent to the sea at the front of the modern Baixa also expanded. Along the river, the shipbuilders set themselves up; warehouses and naval quarters came later on. Occupying the littoral involved drainage schemes and the creation of embankments on the levelled-out land: engineering knowledge of this type increased as demand led to more developments along the Tagus estuary. The merchant class and the nobility were the principal beneficiaries.
We have seen that the English were involved in the earliest days of the city but another nationality well represented were the Italians including Lombard merchants, Venetian traders, Milanese financiers and above all the seafaring Genoese. The Genoese had already become leading traders in the North Sea and the Baltic: Lisbon was an obvious port of call on the way southward again to the Mediterranean via Gibraltar and Ceuta where they were well established. Genoese merchants were already gaining rights in the city by the second part of the thirteenth century. Among the Italian community are mentioned certain Vivaldo brothers, who had influential connections in their home city.
One Genoese, Manuel Pessagno, became the first Portuguese admiral of the fleet,29 eventually taking on a Portuguese name, Pessanha. In the royal letter of appointment of 1317, Pessagno is given ultimate authority over all Portuguese vessels. He and his successors are bestowed with the fiefdom in an act of ultimate feudal authority by Dom Dinis. Naval development was boosted by the need to fend off pirates, particularly Moorish ones, who raided the ships which plied their trade in and out of Lisbon. Pessagno came from one of the cosmopolitan, mercantile families of Genoa (his brother was based in England) so he understood very well the value of protecting trade. In due course he set himself up in style in a palace on one of the city hills which later became known as Pedreira. No doubt his presence, as well as that of other Genoese, added to Portuguese knowledge of cartography, a science that later was to underlie the explorations encouraged by Prince Henry the Navigator. The Italians also introduced the compass and many improvements to shipping construction.
Another foreign community of significance in Lisbon was the Jewish one. Jews who had fled persecution from different European countries found a reasonable degree of religious tolerance in Portugal. Even so, they were confined to certain areas or quarters (judiarias), the oldest of which was right in the centre of the city near Baixa, where their synagogue had been built in the Moorish times. Later other ghettoes were designated, although successful individuals would always manage to live outside them. The magnates wore the same clothes as Christians, unlike their less privileged fellow Jews, who were obliged to wear special identifying marks on their garments. Dr Jeronimo Munzer, on tour in 1492, gives a flavour of the opulence of the city’s Jews.
At the foot of the castle there are three Jewish quarters that close down at night. On the Saturday before St. Andrew’s feast, I visited the Jewish synagogue and I must say that I have never seen its equal. In this temple, there is a patio covered by an enormous vine; its circumference measures four palms. The place is lovely and there is a cathedra to preach from, like in the mosques! Inside two large candelabra are lit, with 50 or 60 lamps each, among other lights. Women have a separate synagogue, which is also profusely lit. Lisbon Jews are wealthy; charging handsomely for their services. They treat the Christians with insolence.30
The proximity of the Jewish quarter to the business and harbour area of the city underlines the importance of the Jewish merchants in the commercial life of the city. Christians could enter the well-placed Jewish areas to conduct business during the daytime. Whenever royal consideration was being given to moving the Jews to other areas (complaints were made from time to time about the advantages of the Jewish sites), the commercial importance of the community was not overlooked.
The Moorish designated area (mouraria) remained closer to the castle walls, in the area north of the Alfama, which we have already noted for its Arabic architectural character. One recurring characteristic of the style was in its use of arches and small, almost hidden windows, a feature which adds a particular charm to the streets of the area. The Moors and Mozarabs retained their mosque, and control of that area was regulated from a council meeting in it. The chief officer was the alcaide or mayor; the religious life continued to be regulated by the imams and muezzins who called the faithful to prayers. The Moors too were obliged to wear identifying clothing, for example the half-moon emblem on the turban. Unlike the Jews, the Moors were prohibited from many activities, including commerce, so that they were confined to making a living as artisans or craftsmen or agricultural labourers. Even in these lowly occupations, they were subject to taxation from which the crown benefited.
During the Middle Ages, Lisbon, like other European cities, suffered from the twin calamities of famine and plague. It also had another natural disaster to contend with — that of earthquakes, which hit the region from time to time. In a largely agricultural economy, failure in crop production led to immediate disaster. The cause of bad harvest was usually drought, but from time to time inundation from rain ruined a year’s crops. The years 1333 and 1334 were particularly bad — wheat production was all but wiped out and with it the staple diet, bread. Starvation threatened the populous city and people were reduced to eating grass. The plague too took its toll in the fourteenth century; the most serious outbreak was in 1348. It affected countryside and city alike but the effects in the city, already the target of migration by the peasants, were worse. It is possible that between a third and a half of the population of the greater Lisbon area perished in that year. The suffering and hardship were immense.
As well as the proximity of volcanic rock in the Sintra area, a series of seismic fault lines run across in a north-easterly direction from the ‘Focinho’ or ‘muzzle’ of the Cabo da Roca. Trembles were often recorded but the two worst occurrences were in 1356 and 1531. Damage to buildings, such as churches, is recorded on these occasions sometimes in the plans for repairs to buildings that needed to be undertaken, sometimes in the plans for complete reconstruction when the damage had been severe. Like all natural disasters, the earthquakes also reinvigorated the economy, providing extra employment for those in the building and construction industry in particular.
Natural disaster was matched by the continued threat from Spain, once the Moorish occupation of the Algarve was brought to an end in the mid-thirteenth century. The military orders of Santiago, as well as the Templars and Hospitallers, had played an important part in this success. By 1256 Lisbon had become the capital of the emerging nation, one of the earliest territorial states of modern Europe.31 The character of the nation was consolidated by the growth of Galaico–Portuguese as a distinct Iberian dialect. Most legal records concerning the ownership of property and royal charters were originally written in Latin. During the twelfth century, the vernacular is mingled with the Latin records. The growth of national identity, closely linked to language, gained a considerable boost during the reign of King Dinis, who, among other cultural gestures of significance, founded the Estudo Geral or first university in Lisbon, which was then located in the Alfama. In the 1290s the university moved to Coimbra but during the next hundred years or so moved to and fro between the two cities. The university depended on the patronage of the Church as much as of the state; many Portuguese continued to study abroad at institutions like Salamanca or further afield in Montpellier and Louvain. King Dinis ordered the translation of official documents into Portuguese; he, like other members of the Burgundian dynasty, was interested in courtly verse, which was now written in Galaico-Portuguese in Spanish, as well as Portuguese, court circles.
More significant in political terms was the growth of the local councils, whose authority has derived from charters (forais) granted to various towns by successive monarchs. Whilst the nobility, with its commitment to military service, headed the hierarchical social pyramid of medieval society, below them were the gentlemen knights (fidalgos) and the higher clergy, whose political support was useful to the crown.
Considerable benefits were bestowed upon these worthy citizens in the charters of Lisbon and Sintra; that in turn guaranteed the support of the peasants who worked on the lands of the fidalgos or in one way or another were connected to serving the crown. The local councils (later seen by the nineteenth-century historian Alexandre Herculano as developments of the Roman curia plena and the Germanic concilia) formed the basis of the cortes or great council which the King regularly consulted on matters of state. Whilst the first cortes called at Coimbra in 1211 consisted of noblemen, the 1254 cortes of Leiria was made up mainly of burghers. During the same period, Afonso IV reformed the system of justice, trying to inject a greater impartiality into the judicial process by appointing judges to serve outside the districts from which they themselves came. A hierarchy of higher and lower courts was established. Civil law was distinguished from criminal law.
King Dinis had also taken an active interest in economic development. He understood the importance of ownership of land among smaller holders, encouraging disenfranchisement of larger interests, including that of the Church. To boost national prosperity, he undertook public works such as land drainage and supported mining for silver and iron, continuing to extract the traditional royal tax of a fifth of the value of any production. Meanwhile new orders of chivalry (the Order of Christ at Tomar), and benefits bestowed upon the university and those studying sciences, encouraged the consolidation of the national effort to improve standards of living. Despite this redistribution of wealth, the most cultivatable land remained in the hands of the nobility and clergy.
As communications from north to south of the country improved, the wealth of the towns increased with benefits to the crown, which collected taxes in cash and kind. The court tended to move about the country: both Afonso IV (1325—1357) and Pedro I (1357—1367) moved between Lisbon, Santarém and Coimbra, giving out the idea that the king was a man of all his domains. When Fernando succeeded in 1367, the crown was reputed to have hoarded 800,000 pieces of gold and 400,000 silver marks in the castle of Lisbon alone.32 It was Fernando’s marriage to the Spanish princess Leonor Teles which led directly to unrest in the capital. Henry II of Castile had been seen as the major threat to the city, laying siege to it in 1373 and forcing Fernando to abandon his alliance with John of Gaunt. The English alliance was only revived after the death of Henry but Fernando’s pursuit of it showed how it remained an option for combating the Castilian menace as it arose from time to time. To counter the immediate threat, Fernando built a new defensive wall around the city, the ‘cerca Fernandina’, which was completed in 1376.
The history of these years was chronicled much later by Fernão Lopes, who became the custodian of records at the Torre do Tombo, eventually to become the principal national archive. Lopes was commissioned by Dom Duarte to write his chronicle of Portuguese history in 1434. Known as the Chronicle of 1419 or the Seven First Kings of Portugal, it is the principal example of contemporary historiography. Robert Southey, a considerable scholar of the lusophone world, greatly admired Lopes, respecting the chronicler’s use of documentary evidence, some of which was subsequently lost. That attention to sources adds to the value of Lopes’s work, however ideologically slanted its overall perspective.
Civil unrest reached a climax in 1383 when a group of disaffected burghers approached João, Master of the Order of Avis and bastard son of Pedro I, to take the crown. By this move, they wanted to prevent the accession of Juan I of Castile, whose claim to the Portuguese throne was based on his marriage to Beatriz, King Fernando’s daughter. Juan I was supported by many of the old nobility whilst João attracted members of the rising families such as Nun’Álvares Pereira,33 a young soldier who managed to rally the citizens of Lisbon to the Avis banner. Their support was given on the basis of some political representation — a body known as the ‘House of Twenty-Four’ was created as part of the political settlement. Each of the twelve major city guilds elected two representatives to the House. In turn members of it attended meetings of the city council, through which there was access to the crown. The Avis dynasty, as it became, was therefore founded on a certain populist basis in so far as the burghers and tradesmen of Lisbon played some part in its establishment.
The contest between the two rival claimants reached a peak when the Spanish invaded Portugal. The Spanish claimant was already unwell and decided to avoid the towns of Coimbra and Leiria. The Portuguese were guarding the Tagus, waiting for English reinforcements. At a crucial moment Nun’ Álvares decided to attack the invaders and, marching northwards, met and defeated the Castilians at the battle of Aljubarrota on 14 August 1385. The battle was won partly as a result of the technical prowess of English archers, opening a new phase in the relations between the two kingdoms, which gained formal recognition in the following year by the Treaty of Windsor, 1386. The terms of the treaty stated that
there shall be between the two above-mentioned kings now reigning, their heirs and successors, and between the subjects of both kingdoms an inviolable, eternal, solid, perpetual and true league of friendship, alliance and union.34
The treaty bound the two countries to come to one another’s aid when attacked by enemies. It became the cornerstone of Portuguese foreign policy for centuries and matured into the oldest alliance between European countries. Meanwhile, in recognition of his victory at Aljubarrota, the king ordered the construction of a church of Santa Maria da Vitória at Batalha, a few miles north of the battleground.
The Iberian connection with England might have been even more direct had John of Gaunt succeeded in his quest for the Castilian crown. As it was, his daughter Philippa came to Portugal as the wife of João I. They set up court at Sintra in the summer months, undertaking considerable work on the old royal palace (Paço Real) in the centre of the medieval village. The king and queen were concerned with establishing a court that sufficiently reflected Portugal’s status as a leading player among the nations of Christendom.
Their talented offspring, Duarte (the future king), Pedro and the younger Prince Henry the Navigator, all took the task of modernizing the nation seriously. Pedro toured the countries of Europe in search of scientific knowledge; Prince Henry, by his patronage of navigational science, laid the basis for the exploration of Atlantic islands and the West African coast. Madeira35 was reached in the 1420s and was put under the personal authority of Prince Henry; the Azores, where Flemish settlers joined the Portuguese, was the next discovery. The Atlantic islands as a whole soon became important suppliers of agricultural products, boosting the commercial development of the port of Lisbon. By 1460, when Prince Henry died, the Cape Verde islands had been captured and the Portuguese caravels had reached the coast of Sierra Leone and were poised to continue southwards to the Cape of Good Hope.36
Meanwhile the crown found it necessary to tighten its grip on finances. There had been a long tradition that the king paid noblemen (and sometimes others like the gentlemen knights of Sintra) for their services in defence of the realm. A register was kept at court which showed the rise and demise of families when they changed sides in politics — Nun’Álvares Pereira37 and the House of Bragança had become an important example of the emergence of the new nobility to whom the Avis kings were indebted. Nevertheless, by the time of King Duarte, it was necessary to revisit the amounts being paid out. A system of reversions to the crown in cases where there was no legitimate claimant to the royal grant was put in place (the so-called Lei Mental of 1434). The military orders, such as the Templars and the clergy, were also beneficiaries of royal favours; in the latter case it enabled the king to keep control of appointments which were made on the basis of his recommendations to Rome through the transmission of papal letters. At the same time administrative reforms were introduced; a chancellor was appointed to be in charge of royal finances with undersecretaries regulating different areas of income and expenditure. By these means the economic life of a nation that by now may have numbered a million was gradually being centralized.
During the disturbances of the late fourteenth century, as we have seen, the merchant and artisan classes became more assertive — tailors and coopers were involved in supporting the rise to power of João of Avis. When he held his first cortes, there were requests for the preservation of knightly practices in the guild system with its strong hierarchical ordering. The Moors and Jews were excluded from membership, though they had, to a certain extent, a system of their own governance in their allotted ghettoes.
Lisbon itself, with its considerable Moorish and Jewish quarters, continued to flourish. Fernando had built a new wall around the city within which there were still hortas or garden areas producing food for consumption, although the main supply came from Sintra and Colares (wheat and fruit are most often cited). The benefits of the city’s location were well captured in a late-fifteenth-century visitor’s account.
Half a mile below Lisbon are two hills about a quarter of a mile from each other; through the gorge formed between them, the sea flows in the direction of the mouth of the river up to a distance of fourteen leagues. In some places it is up to three leagues wide, being narrower in others. How fertile and well populated the banks of this stretch of sea are! There is an abundance of olive oil, salt and all the fruits of the earth. Ships are sheltered from even the most violent tempests in Lisbon.38
The population of the city may have been upward of 50,000.39 The Portuguese kings continued to live in the castle — still known by its Moorish name the Alcaçova. The cathedral (Sé) rose on the slopes below and the narrow streets of the Jewish quarter continued along the river’s edge in the present commercial Baixa. One of the earliest thoroughfares was the Rua Nova D’El Rey, running parallel to the river, just north of the present Praça do Comércio. Houses were now two- or three-storeyed: shops or artisans’ workplaces on the ground level with balconies on the first floors. Although the gardens and even pasturage may have been a relief in the urban setting, lack of proper drainage would have made the city unpleasant, particularly in the summer. Many diarists complained of its filthiness. The local habit of pouring out rubbish into the streets continued to cause annoyance to foreign visitors like William Beckford and Robert Southey in the eighteenth century. Some enduring characteristics of the city’s personality cannot be counted among its charms.