The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Lisbon is the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Mary Major (Portuguese: Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa or Sé de Lisboa) or simply Lisbon Cathedral (or even more simply the Sé ); the oldest church in the city it is the see of the Archdiocese of Lisbon. Since the beginning of the construction of the cathedral, in the year 1147, the building has been modified several times and survived many earthquakes. It is nowadays a mix of different architectural styles.
After looking around the inside of the cathedral, I bought a ticket (4 euros) to the cloisters and the treasury. The cloisters are the site of archaeological excavations begun in the 1990s, with streets and buildings dating to Roman times and of Islamic nature - demonstrating the proximity to northern Africa. The treasury holds the gold and important historical pieces - you could make a lot of money melting down the gowns, as they are all heavily inlaid with golden thread. The meeting room in this area was elaborate with a wonderful painted ceiling, but no photographs allowed.
The Castle of São Jorge (Portuguese: Castelo de São Jorge) is a Moorish castle occupying a commanding hilltop overlooking the historic centre of Lisbon and the Tagus River; the strongly fortified citadel dates from medieval period of Portuguese history. Although the first fortification on this hilltop date to the 2nd century BC, archaeological excavations have identified a human presence in the Tagus valley as far back as the 6th century BC. The first fortification was, presumably, erected in 48 BC, when Lisbon was classified as a Roman municipality.
For the afternoon, the downtown area (Baixa) was the target; this area was totally destroyed in the earthquake of 1755, and rebuilt (yes, I know - it fell down and I rebuilt it, that fell down, and I rebuilt it again ... makes you wonder if we really do think about where we put our cities); at this time they installed wide streets (many since pedestrianized) and many public squares, putting the city at the forefront of town planning - I had to see it for Kim's sake.
On the way around, the seven hills of Lisbon really did become obvious - this is a hilly city! To combat this, other than many small and windy roads, there is the famous Lisbon tram system, as well as a couple of funiculars (also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, a funicular is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope with the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalancing each other), and an elevator system (Elevador de Santa Justa) between the downtown Baixa area and the old district up the hill (Bairro Alto), which was designed and built by students of Eiffel (of the Parisian tower fame), which is evident in the steel design work. However, in keeping with the day, I walked up the hill instead.