Portugal, cosmodrome of the XVI century

In the fact that Portugal – the color of the continent, has its own charm. It is like specially invented for those who love peace, warmth and ocean. And in addition to the resorts themselves, there were still normal human settlements in which normal locals live, and not just tourists and accommodating staff of hotels. So that you can walk along narrow streets, go to a local zucchini, drink good local wine. Observe the life of the towns, which, it seems, did not touch. Listen to the ringing of bells, calling on the morning mass, mixed with the crowd of local residents entering the church. Go to the harbor, to be pumped like fishermen pull out our catch from boats, maybe even shut off with them a couple of words.

A small country is not known how the peoples distinguished from that mixture that struggled against Arabs who captured the Pyrenean Peninsula. It is also angry, from what mysterious philological transitions appeared the adhesive portuguese, such a tragic one who immediately made a professor of the Pagany. It is very different from the ringing of the spanish Spanish with his endless "NS" Yes "eras". And in their rustling hears how carefully small caravels are pierced along the shore of African bulk, almost rubbing her. And after all, in the sixth place in the prevalence of the world, Portuguese – with the number of actually, Portuguese ten million.

In the other way, Portugal owned half the world. Yes that half there! Kaba King John II, fully occupied by the coastal development of the West Bank of Africa, did not dismiss the obsessive Genoese Jew, who stolen in the Archive of Genoa, not clear the cards, then and the world would be Portuguese – that is, practically a world except Europe and China. And so Columbus was forced to go to the Spanish yard – and landed on Cuba under the Castilian flag.

A little later, the energetic French king Francis I was persistently prevented from Pope, where it is written in the Bible that the world is divided between Portugal and Spain?! It turns out, Papal Bulla dated May 4, 1494 read "CITY AND MIR", that all newly opened lands are divided between Portugal (east of Meridian on the Azores) and Spain (west). Other countries in those feverish times in the oceans did not bother.

Portuguese Ditching "Marine infantry" hacking kingdoms with millions of subjects – so passed the XVI century. Motherland also ranked swords: then the aristocracy questioned the unquestion of royal power, then rugs Spain tried to finally decide "Portuguese question". Of course, a small country was tangled.

What has been left to the beginning of the nightmare of the twentieth century: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Azores and Green Cape Islands in Africa, Goa, Macau and Timor in Asia. Let them independently, but look at Portugal, like on mommy and then they ask for a candy. Even Brazil, the only territory of Portugal in the Hollow Light, has long been off and having time to visit even an independent empire, preserves respectful relationship with the former metropolis.

In short, the country is small, imperceptible, one of the most "Poor" in Europe and practically no participation in European affairs. But all the twentieth century bypassed her side.

It is unlikely that the capital name happened, as the Portuguese like to say, on behalf of "Ulide" (Odyssey), for it is not clear what kind of wave would carry the King Ithaca in the Atlantic. After all, it was experienced Odyssey in navalism and is very practical to not notice how he sailed "superfluous" Half of the Mediterranean Sea, passed Hercules poles and found himself in the unknown, terrible for coaster Greeks Ocean. If it were, then Homer would compose another poem!

There is another, very believable version of the Origin of the Word "Lisbon" from Phinician "Alice Ubo" – "Calm harbor". After the Phoenicians here was the colony of the Greeks, and then the Great Roman order came. Romans City, of course, have renamed Felicitas Julia for some time – Happy Julius. In honor of his first emperor.

Lisbon has the taste of surprises, the taste of coffee gloss. He is small, but majestic, it looks like a beautiful and tender cake with a strong cognac-surprise inside. Lisbon – Color. This is the kingdom of a variety of roofs, one above the other. There are no ugly places, so you can live in any area, choosing a hotel or apartment in accordance with the means. But it is better to prefer some two- or three-star (no higher!) in the old, still a century, building, and at least with a small, but ocean view – what a portugal without the ocean! In such a hotel you feel the taste of Lisbon, peace before the long expensive in overseas possessions, constantly disputed by the arrogant British and the Dutch. This will not compare the dull dear monotony of any "pent" and "Holiday Innov", vulgar in their international serm.

The classic view of Lisbon opens with one of the dominant heights, on which the castle of St. George stands – the fortress, built by more posges, who changed the Romans in the fifth century after the collapse of the Great Roman order. Of course, the fortress had another name, no one else is known – Christian names entrenched here much later. Goths passed, in 711 Arabs appeared – another era began. Arabs also made a fortress with their center. It is difficult for them to be called conquerors due to their great culture and relative order.

Under the walls of the castle – waves of colored roofs, descending to the embankments. Winding Lisbon Port Bay, Wide Tagus. Has Tom Coast River and City blesses a giant figure of Christ with open hands. The same statue reigns above the Bay of Rio de Janeiro.

A little away is a castle of foam – an unsurpassed masterpiece of eclectics, according to which you can visually study the history of architecture. In the guidebooks, it somehow describes this building: they say, the eclecticism, what can be said here, although it is beautiful, and there is no original, and there is no such building – so do not blame, brother-tourist. And what to be shy? It is very easy to build a banal building in a classic style – know draw the proportion. But try to connect Gothic and modern, rude romance masonry and grace of the Mauritan style and crowned all this dome with sharp spire! The castle stands on the hill, and his spiers, dome, teeth, towers, minarets seem precious fruits of mysterious trees. Interior decoration is appropriate.

This miracle is built on the means of the German Prince Ferdinand, who was a relative of the King of Bavaria Ludwig, too close to the heart of the sorrow of the world and went crazy. Maybe this structure fenrdinand honored the memory of the unfortunate Ludwig?

Lisbon’s romantic species (in addition to the Great Country and Dresses of Marquis, Pombale, rebuilt Lisbon after the great earthquake of 1755), also obliged to change the rulers and their cultures – Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Ready, French.

And to fully inspect the beautiful Lisbon, not one week is needed. Take at least the city district of Alpham, the oldest, still Westgoth times, where every courtyard gives an architectural discovery and even philosophical pleasure. Or the Cathedral of Our Lady with Straight Vatican Interiors. Monastery of Saint Jerome – the purest sample of the purest gothic charms, which can be soaked. Here are the graves of the famous Portuguese: Vasco da Gama and Luisa de Kamense, the singer of Portuguese conquest. And streets, streets, streets for which you can walk and glaze all my life.

TOO WILL WILL BE FOR ABOUT LISBONE. But here, alas, a sad paradox: Women ugly, girls dress gently and look like guys, unavailable, faces are not inspired for long-forgotten poems. Where are the descendants of a mixture of Arab lightness and languid-submissive grace with a pomp of European forms and blond hair?

Cape Roca is the most extreme point of Europe. Two hundred forty kilometers from the capital, and – deserted beauty of the shore, waves, suitable in the ocean sun. You need to come here for one or two days, live in the sands among the rocks, ignite the fire. You can absorb the Atlantic from anywhere in this coast, right up to the French city Brest. But only on the cape of rock eyes and soul become like a sponge: the memory will forever preserve the transatlantic gifts.

Cape of St. Vinzent is a bit inferior to the rock caught in proximity to the hawk light, but the captains of all ships entering the Mediterranean Sea, they know his lighthouse. They knew this cape and the rockety merchants of antiquity, marine tramps Phoenicians, who spoke several thousand years ago: "Earth ends here and the sea begins". It was from here that the era of great geographical discoveries began, that is, the beginning of the one, our time.

For some reason it is believed that it originates from Italian revival. Completely unreasonable. What the case was European people before the revival of some kind of pagan culture, fragments of statues of full-scale women and bearded men? Here is the invention of banks in Lombardy – this is yes! And only when the first Portuguese ships found that Africa is not only a narrow strip of the southern Mediterranean coast (Libya yes Egypt, and malicious for the Portuguese soul of the Mauric Cause), but a huge, endlessly stretching down the downstream, inhabited by beings, very similar to devils (and The same huge land may be at the Atlantic Ocean!) – here is the minigration of the Europeans to strike.

And it all started at the Cape of St. Vinzent, in the fortress of Sagresh, where Prince Enrico Havigitors (Heinrich Navigator) created the first school of navigation. He himself never went out in the sea, but his nickname is quite deserved – graduates of his school first began to find new lands and revealed the world the true essence of the European Soul: Forward, to the unknown for the sake of himself, for the sake of insatiable thirst for knowledge. Because of this school and hit the flag of Portugal Astronomical sphere.

"The shore of the desert waves / he stood, the Dum is high full." It is strange that this applies to the northern river, looping between the swamps. True Portuguese verses.

Fad, Fate Song

"Athens created the sculpture, Rome was significant, Paris invented the revolution, Germany opened mysticism. And what created Lisbon? Fad",- noticed an outstanding Portuguese writer Esa de Caireos.

Fada is the Portuguese city romance, one of the most characteristic elements of Portuguese and, first of all, Lisbon culture. Can be said fate, overlapping music. Fada is written in a free manner in the form of four-line stations, which are based on some story or just feeling. There is a faad of lyrical and love, there are dramatic and even thieves. But in any case, they express the state of the soul.

Fada is always performed under a small but twelve "Guitar Portuguezo". Unlike Spanish, which acts as bass, the Portuguese guitar leads a melody. As a phenomenon, Pure Portuguese, Fada, however, has developed from a variety of elements. In Romance, it is not difficult to trace the impact and African, and Brazilian music. But especially – musical and vocal traditions of the islands of green cape, Cape Verde.

"Lisbon has also retained the original tomotability of light and freshness, "says the same Es De Cayos, – despite the asphalt, at the factory, on gas lights, on the paved embankments, here spring is still listening to the concert verses; And on the roofs still kissing pigeons; And everything else is as if heard in silence, as the air flows through the slots of stone buildings, as if the living blood of the melancholic city. And God-poet still did not fell into the disgrace of the crowd".

Link to melancholicity – not accidental. Whatever Fada was, there is always some longing and sadness in it, which seems to be in the national character of the Portuguese, to this day we grow about the lost greatness of the country.

In the XV-XVI century, as a result of the famous marine discoveries, Lisbon became the capital of the largest world empire – from Morocco to Cape of Good Hope and from Brazil to Macau. However, this great empire existed for long. In 1578, the young king Sebashtian (Sebastian), driven by outdated knightly ideals, moved by a crusade against Mauri in Morocco. And in the battle with Alkasar-Qvivire was the headwound. Only 60 people from 18 thousand soldiers returned from the field of BRANI. The king himself disappeared without leaving heirs. This event was finally undermined by the Portuguese power, which began to melt back during his predecessor – Zhuana III – due to the mindless disbuting of the wealth. The situation was used by the Spanish King Philip II, who seized power in the country.

But the King Sebashtian king in the Moroccan sands in the Portugal itself was not wanted to consider the dead. Moreover, announced "welcome" – they say it is waiting and confident that he will come back. by the way, "Cult Sebastianism" – Faith in the return of the former greatness, besides, mixed on the long-term long-term, is still alive.

Famous Sebastian was a poet and a singer of life in the style of Fada Fernanda Pesoa. Stupid in bronze, now he sits right in the middle of the street at the entrance to the Lisbon cafe "Brazilera" – His headquarters, so to speak. With Fad-fate is really connected by his, bohemian, so to speak, lifestyle. And how could it be different when the phady sounds in taverns, restaurants and zucchi, where there is always wine, late feast, flashabling novels.

But the faad can be heard not only in Lisbon. "Fate, shifted to music", The ancient city of Coimbra is famous in the central part of the country, where one of the oldest is located – if not the oldest in Europe – University. There you fulfill the students who are destined in black mantle. But if the Lisbon faad is saturated with notes of disappointment, then the optimism of youth is more felt in the coimbre.

To make sure this is enough to get to the student party or simply go to one of the restaurants of the city where youth going. Speak, Chairman of the Portuguese Parliament of Almeida Santos, who studied in Coimbre, also sometimes pleases the listeners by the execution of FAD.

Unlike Coimbra, where Fada is prerogative only men and women are singing in Lisbon. One of them – Amelia Rodrigsh – became a real symbol of Lisbon Fad. Her star of Queen Fad did not die, even when she completely aged. Celebrity she became completely accidental. At one time she traded the fish and at the same time he loved to sing. Once he heard one impresario and immediately solved the great talent in it. When Amelia Rodrigush died in the fall last year, in Portugal was almost a national mourning.

Listen, see Fada – the best way to understand Portugal. Therefore, it is necessary to go to the twilight of Bairra Alto or Alphala and dedicate one of the evenings in Lisbon Fad. So that at least slightly touch the fact that in Portugal is called fate.