Castelo de S.Jorge, Lisbon, a Great Place to Visit in Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal has many beautiful historical buildings. For the first couple days of our vacation here, we explored these buildings on foot within the downtown area.

Sitting high on top of the hill, Castelo de Sao Jorge, captured our attention. Saint George Castle is located in the Alfama district, Europe's oldest neighborhood. Instead of going with a bus package tour to the castle which could cost up to 200 Eruos per person, we called a taxi taking us there.

The taxi ride was fun as we could had a relaxing tour of this historic area filled with cobbled lanes, narrow alleys, medieval churches, and breathtaking viewpoints along its hilly streets.The taxi ride was another experience as the alleyways were quite narrow in this part of the city therefore drivers need to drive carefully to negotiate their way to avoid any accidents.

Declared as a national monument in the Royal Decree of 1910 , Castelo de S. Jorge consisted of a castle, ruins of the former royal palace and part of the neighborhood for the elite.

The castle has beautiful courtyards where wild flowers grew and peacocks roamed free, unafraid of the presence of people.

We saw a few of peacocks strolling about and strutting their long feathers. Lucky for us, there was a peacock who proudly opened his feathers and displayed them confidently for all to see.

< The castle has been around since the mid 11th century and the fortification was built by the Moors.

It was good exercise walking up the stairs to the top of the castle where we were rewarded with an excellent birds eyeview of Lisbon. The castle and ruins were rediscovered and major restoration was done from 1938-40.

Some ancient buildings were resuced, resotred and later open to the public. .

People were enjoying the place and the atmosphere. We sat down on some steps and listened to a street musician playing on her violin. After such a nice relaxing time, we came upon a church right outside the castle and pay a visit there.

Nowadays, outside of the castle, the area has become a vibrant neighbourhood with many cafes and restaurants. We would have loved to spend a whole afternoon walking down the alleyways and enjoying some food and drink in this castle community. We had a terrific time of visiting the castle and learned a lot about the life and people at the time. Castelo de S. Jorge is a must see on my list of places to visit in Lisbon, Portugal! RT, Castelo de S. Jorge Lisbon, Portugal