Jerónimos Monastery

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

A cloister carved like stone lace, and Vasco da Gama's tomb

⚠ Closed Mon; often sells out

Hours

Cloister Tue–Sun 09:30–17:30 (last entry 17:00, ticket office closes 16:30). Church Tue–Sat 10:30–17:00, Sun and religious holidays 14:00–17:00. Closed Mondays, 1 Jan, Easter Sunday, 1 May, 13 Jun and 25 Dec; may close for state events

Tickets

Cloister €18; 50% off for over-65s and ages 13–24, under-13s free. The church is free. Book on the official online box office

Address

Praça do Império, Belém, three minutes' walk from the Pastéis de Belém bakery

The white limestone front runs almost 300 metres along the square. The cloister is the reason to pay: two storeys of arches where every column is carved with ropes, coral, seaweed and armillary spheres, the swagger of an age that got rich from the sea. The church of Santa Maria next door is free and separate; just inside the door, Vasco da Gama and the poet Camões lie in stone tombs facing each other. The church columns shoot up thin as palm trunks and fan out into a ribbed web across the vault.