CITYSCAPE

Lisbon, Portugal

After sketching Se Cathedral, I continued my stroll through the city, looking for something else to draw. Up a hill, in a small city park, I noticed this view, capturing a collage of old buildings climbing the hill from the port. Notice Se Cathedral’s twin towers to the right, standing watch on the port.

Lisbon is the oldest city in western Europe. In 711, Islamic Moors invaded the Christian Iberian Peninsula. Despite attempts to seize it by the Normans, Lisbon remained a Muslim possession until 1147, when Christians recaptured the city and Christian rule returned. In 1256, the capital capitol of Portugal moved from Coimbra to Lisbon, taking advantage of the city’s excellent port and its strategic central position. Lisbon flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries (The Age of Discovery) as the center of a vast empire. This was a time of intensive maritime exploration, when Portugal accumulated great wealth and power through its colonization of Asia, South America, Africa and the Atlantic islands. Evidence of the city's wealth can still be seen today in the magnificent structures built then. But in 1755, an earthquake, with subsequent fires and a tsunami, almost totally destroyed Lisbon.

This sketch was not finish on site, since the sun was setting. I took a number of photos, intending to fill in the left portion of the sketch soon. But as the years went by, my photos were misplaced. Paging an architectural magazine four years later, I noticed a travel advertisement of the exact scene I had viewed, and used it as the basis for finishing the left third of the drawing.