After three nights in Lisbon, it was time to take to the road heading towards Porto for the second half of the conference. And, as the next three posts suggest, this was some trip! First stop was Coimbra, perhaps Portugal's ancient heart. And the key focus was on the university of Coimbra, one of the oldest and grandest in Europe. We were all simply blown away! It was simply stunning. Let's have a look at some pictures of this grand institution and its beautiful surroundings. On the way there. the countryside was attractive - central Portugal is much more mountainous than I expected.
The university is perched high on a hill-top.
And its core contains a constellation of elegant and ancient buildings, some going back perhaps 700 years. And many of them have ornate inscriptions or decorations.
There are, like Cambridge, some elegant walkways.
But the gorgeous palatial rooms at the centre were breathtaking - and they are, in fact, part of the palace of the Portuguese royal family.
One thing that caught my attention was the cell-block where recalcitrant students were imprisoned for anything from a day or two (maybe for being drunk or disorderly) to lengthier confinement for such crimes as missing classes, forgetting assignments, or maybe being rude to their lecturers. The cells were small, but not damp as with some dungeons!
At this point, I'd love to show some pictures of the magnificent old library, but photography was barred for good reason. In a way, the old library was far more ornate and prestigious than any old baroque cathedral or palace. It probably puts such grand buildings as Rome's Sistine chapel in the shade. And why? Well, there's the over-the-top woodwork, the lovely ceiling, the gilt leaf, and so on. The leaf is made out of pure gold and there's masses of it, making this structure possibly the most expensive in the world per unit volume. It appears that, at the time of construction, the Portuguese king received about 20% of the gold mined in Brasil and a lot of it went on the library. Wow! Also impressive was the number of books (about 40,000) many of which date back centuries. As far as I could gather, the collection had no volumes later than the 19th century, but they could be borrowed if needed. The other stunning features of this library were its pest and temperature control systems (the former preventing insects and other creepy crawlies eating away at the volumes stocked). Don't laugh. What's coming is true. The library housed a colony of bats!!!!!!! They roost behind some of the bookshelves and fly out mainly at night to forage.
The views from the high points of the campus over the city were also delightful:
And, heaven knows what these guys were up to - some impromptu dance routine in the quadrangle.
Some more views of the city itself:
And, shortly after we departed, some lunch. and our host wore some interesting costum!
AS
The university is perched high on a hill-top.
And its core contains a constellation of elegant and ancient buildings, some going back perhaps 700 years. And many of them have ornate inscriptions or decorations.
There are, like Cambridge, some elegant walkways.
But the gorgeous palatial rooms at the centre were breathtaking - and they are, in fact, part of the palace of the Portuguese royal family.
At this point, I'd love to show some pictures of the magnificent old library, but photography was barred for good reason. In a way, the old library was far more ornate and prestigious than any old baroque cathedral or palace. It probably puts such grand buildings as Rome's Sistine chapel in the shade. And why? Well, there's the over-the-top woodwork, the lovely ceiling, the gilt leaf, and so on. The leaf is made out of pure gold and there's masses of it, making this structure possibly the most expensive in the world per unit volume. It appears that, at the time of construction, the Portuguese king received about 20% of the gold mined in Brasil and a lot of it went on the library. Wow! Also impressive was the number of books (about 40,000) many of which date back centuries. As far as I could gather, the collection had no volumes later than the 19th century, but they could be borrowed if needed. The other stunning features of this library were its pest and temperature control systems (the former preventing insects and other creepy crawlies eating away at the volumes stocked). Don't laugh. What's coming is true. The library housed a colony of bats!!!!!!! They roost behind some of the bookshelves and fly out mainly at night to forage.
The views from the high points of the campus over the city were also delightful:
And, heaven knows what these guys were up to - some impromptu dance routine in the quadrangle.
Some more views of the city itself:
And, shortly after we departed, some lunch. and our host wore some interesting costum!
AS
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