beyond the Alcantara valley, are Belem (i.e. "Bethlehem"), beside the
Tagus, and Ajuda, on the heights above. The Paço de Belem, built in
1700 for the counts of Aveiro, became the chief royal palace under
John V. (1706-1750). The Torre de Belem, on the foreshore, is a small
tower of beautiful design, built in 1520 for the protection of
shipping. The finest ecclesiastical building in Portugal except the
monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha also fronts the river. It is the
Convento dos Jeronymos, a Hieronymite convent and church, founded in
1499 to commemorate the discovery of the sea-route to India by Vasco
da Gama. It was built of white limestone by João de Castilho (d.
1581), perhaps the greatest of Manoeline architects. Its cloisters
form a square with blunted corners, surrounded by a two-storeyed
arcade, every available portion of which is covered with exquisite
sculptures. Parts of the building have been restored, but the
cloisters and the beautiful central gateway remain unspoiled. The
interior contains many royal tombs, including that of Catherine of
Braganza (d. 1705), the wife of Charles II. of England. The supposed
remains of Camoens and Vasco da Gama were interred here in 1880. In
1834, when the convent was secularized, its buildings were assigned to
the Casa Pia, an orphanage founded by Maria I. Since 1903 they have
contained the archaeological collections of the Portuguese
Ethnological Museum. The royal Ajuda palace, begun (1816-1826) by John
VI. but left unfinished, derives its name from the chapel of N. S. de
Ajuda ("Our Lady of Aid"). It contains some fine pictures and
historical trophies. In the coach-house there is an unsurpassed
collection of state coaches, the cars upon which figures of saints are
borne in procession, sedan chairs, old cabriolets and other curious
vehicles.
_The Environs of Lisbon._--The administrative district of Lisbon has
an area of 3065 sq. m., with a population of 709,509 in 1900. It
comprises the lower parts of the Tagus and Sado; the sea-coast from 5
m. S. of Cape Carvoeiro to within 3 m. of the bluff called the Escarpa
do Rojo; and a strip of territory extending inland for a mean distance
of 30 m. This region corresponds with the southern part of Estremadura
(q.v.). Its more important towns, Setubal, Cintra, Torres Vedras and
Mafra, are described in separate articles. Sines, a small seaport on
Cape Sines, was the birthplace of Vasco da Gama. On the left bank of
the Tagus, opposite Lisbon, are the small towns of Almada, Barreiro,
Aldeia Gallega and Seixal, and the hamlet of Trafaria, inhabited by
fishermen. The beautiful strip of coast west of Oeiras and south of
Cape Roca is often called the "Portuguese Riviera." Its fine climate,
mineral springs and sea-bathing attract visitors at all seasons to the
picturesque fortified bay of Cascaes, or to Estoril, Mont' Estoril and
São João do Estoril, modern towns consisting chiefly of villas, hotels
and gardens. The Boca do Inferno ("Mouth of Hell") is a cavity in the
rocks at Cascaes resembling the Bufador at Peñiscola (q.v.). The
villages of Carcavellos, Bucellas, Lumiar and Collares produce
excellent wines; at Carcavellos is the receiving station for cables,
with a large British staff, and a club and grounds where social and
athletic meetings are held by the British colony. Alhandra, on the
right bank of the Tagus, above Lisbon, was the birthplace of
Albuquerque; fighting bulls for the Lisbon arena are bred in the
adjacent pastures.
_Railways, Shipping and Commerce._--Lisbon has five railway
stations--the central (Lisboa-Rocío), for the lines to Cintra, northern
and central Portugal, and Madrid via Valencia de Alcántara; the Santa
Apolonia or Caes dos Soldados, at the eastern extremity of the quays,
for the same lines (excluding Cintra) and for southern Portugal and
Andalusia; the Caes do Sodré and Santos, farther west along the quays,
for Cascaes; and the Barreiro, on the left bank of the Tagus, for
southern Portugal. In 1902 the railways north and south of the Tagus
were connected near Lisbon by a bridge. In the previous year an
extensive system of electric tramways replaced the old-fashioned cable
cars and mule trams. Electric and hydraulic lifts are used where the
streets are too steep for trams. Lisbon is lighted by both electricity
and gas; it has an admirable telephone service, and is connected by the
Carcavellos cable-station with Cornwall (England), Vigo in Galicia,
Gibraltar, the Azores and Madeira.
Ships of the largest size can enter the Tagus, and the Barreiro inlet is
navigable at low water by vessels drawing 16 ft. There are extensive
quays along the right bank, with hydraulic cranes, two graving docks, a
slipway, warehouses and lines of railway. The government and private
docks are on the left bank. Loading and discharging are principally
effected by means of lighters. The exports are wines, oil, fruit, tinned
fish, salt, colonial produce, cork, pitwood, leather and wool. The
imports include cotton and woollen goods, linen, ale and porter, butter,
tea, hardware, tin plates, coal, iron, machinery, chemical manure, &c.,
from Great Britain; grain and petroleum from the United States; dried
codfish from Norway and Newfoundland; silks, perfumery and fancy goods
from France; hemp, flax, grain, petroleum and cloth from Russia; linen,
machinery, hardware, sugar, &c., from Germany and Holland, iron, steel,
timber, pitch and salt fish from the Baltic; cocoa, coffee, wax and
rubber from the Portuguese colonies. Towards the close of the 19th
century the tourist traffic from Great Britain and Germany attained
considerable importance, and Lisbon has long been one of the principal
ports of debarcation for passengers from Brazil and of embarcation for
emigrants to South America. Shipbuilding, including the construction of
vessels for the national navy, is a growing industry. The fisheries have
always been important, and in no European fishmarket is the produce more
varied. Sardines and tunny are cured and tinned for export. In addition
to a fleet of about 600 sailing boats, the Tagus is the headquarters of
a small fleet of steam trawlers. The industries of Lisbon include
dyeing, distillation of spirits and manufactures of woollen, cotton,
silk and linen fabrics, of pottery, soap, paper, chemicals, cement,
corks, tobacco, preserved foods and biscuits.
_Education and Charity._--Although the seat of the only university in
Portugal was fixed at Coimbra in 1527, Lisbon is the educational centre
of the Portuguese world, including Brazil. Its chief learned societies
are the Society of Medical Sciences, the Geographical Society, the Royal
Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Royal Conservatory of
Music and the Propaganda de Portugal. The museum of the Academy of Fine
Arts contains the largest collection of pictures and statues by native
and foreign artists in Portugal. The Geographical Society has gained an
international reputation; it possesses a valuable library and museum.
The National Library, founded in 1796, contains over 400,000 printed
books, and upwards of 9000 MSS. There are also colonial, naval,
artillery, natural history and commercial museums, meteorological and
astronomical observatories, zoological gardens and an aquarium. Purely
educational institutions include the medical, polytechnic, military and
naval schools, commercial, agricultural and industrial institutes, a
school of art, a central lyceum, a school for teachers, &c. The English
college for British Roman Catholics dates from 1628. The Irish
Dominicans have a seminary, and Portuguese ecclesiastical schools are
numerous. There are hospitals for women, and for contagious diseases,
almshouses, orphanages, a foundling hospital and a very large quarantine
station on the south bank of the Tagus, founded in 1857 after an
outbreak of yellow fever had devastated the city. Foremost among the
theatres, circuses and other places of amusement is the royal
opera-house of São Carlos, built in 1792-1793 on the model of the Scala
at Milan.
_Population._--The population of Lisbon, 187,404[1] in 1878, rose to
301,206 in 1890 and 356,009 in 1900. It includes a large foreign colony,
composed chiefly of Spaniards, British, Germans, French, Brazilians and
immigrants from the Portuguese colonies, among whom are many
half-castes. The majority of the Spaniards are domestic servants and
labourers from Galicia, whose industry and easily gained knowledge of
the kindred Portuguese language enables them to earn a better livelihood
here than in their own homes. The British, German and French communities
control a large share of the foreign trade. The Brazilians and colonial
immigrants are often merchants and landowners who come to the
mother-country to spend their fortunes in a congenial social
environment.
The street life of the city is full of interest. The bare-footed,
ungainly fishwives, dressed in black and bearing flat trays of fish on
their heads; the Galician water-carriers, with their casks; the
bakers, bending beneath a hundredweight of bread slung in a huge
basket from their shoulders; the countrymen, with their sombreros,
sashes and hardwood quarter-staves, give colour and animation to their
surroundings; while the bag-pipes played by peasants from the north,
the whistles of the knife-grinders, and the distinctive calls of the
vendors of fruit, lottery tickets, or oil and vinegar, contribute a
babel of sound. For church festivals and holidays the country-folk
come to town, the women riding on pillions behind the men, adorned in
shawls, aprons and handkerchiefs of scarlet or other vivid hues, and
wearing the strings of coins and ornaments of exquisite gold and
silver filigree which represent their savings or dowries. The costumes
and manners of all classes may be seen at their best in the great
bull-ring of Campo Pequeno, a Mauresque building which holds many
thousands of spectators. A Lisbon bullfight is a really brilliant
exhibition of athletic skill and horsemanship, in which amateurs often
take part, and neither horses nor bulls are killed. There is a
Tauromachic Club solely for amateurs.
_History._--The name Lisbon is a modification of the ancient name
_Olisipo_, also written _Ulyssippo_ under the influence of a mythical
story of a city founded by Odysseus (Ulysses) in Iberia, which, however,
according to Strabo, was placed by ancient tradition rather in the
mountains of Turdetania (the extreme south of Spain). Under the Romans
Olisipo became a _municipium_ with the epithet of _Felicitas Julia_, but
was inferior in importance to the less ancient _Emerita Augusta_
(Mérida). From 407 to 585 it was occupied by Alaric, and thenceforward
by the Visigoths until 711, when it was taken by the Moors. Under the
Moors the town bore in Arabic the name of _Al Oshbuna_ or _Lashbuna_. It
was the first point of Moslem Spain attacked by the Normans in 844. When
Alphonso I. of Portugal took advantage of the decline and fall of the
Almoravid dynasty to incorporate the provinces of Estremadura and
Alemtejo in his new kingdom, Lisbon was the last city of Portugal to
fall into his hands, and yielded only after a siege of several months
(21st October 1147), in which he was aided by English and Flemish
crusaders on their way to Syria. In 1184 the city was again attacked by
the Moslems under the powerful caliph Abu Yakub, but the enterprise
failed. In the reign of Ferdinand I., the greater part of the town was
burned by the Castilian army under Henry II. (1373), and in 1384 the
Castilians again besieged Lisbon, but without success. Lisbon became the
seat of an archbishop in 1390, the seat of government in 1422. During
the 16th century it gained much in wealth and splendour from the
establishment of a Portuguese empire in India and Africa. From 1580 to
1640 Lisbon was a provincial town under Spanish rule, and it was from
this port that the Spanish Armada sailed in 1588. In 1640 the town was
captured by the duke of Braganza, and the independence of the kingdom
restored.
For many centuries the city had suffered from earthquakes, and on the
1st of November 1755 the greater part of it was reduced almost in an
instant to a heap of ruins. A tidal wave at the same time broke over the
quays and wrecked the shipping in the Tagus; fire broke out to complete
the work of destruction; between 30,000 and 40,000 persons lost their
lives; and the value of the property destroyed was about £20,000,000.
The shock was felt from Scotland to Asia Minor. Careful investigation by
Daniel Sharpe, an English geologist, has delimited the area in and near
Lisbon to which its full force was confined. Lisbon is built in a
geological basin of Tertiary formation, the upper portion of which is
loose sand and gravel destitute of organic remains, while below these
are the so-called Almada beds of yellow sand, calcareous sandstone and
blue clay rich in organic remains. The Tertiary deposits, which
altogether cover an area of more than 2000 sq. m., are separated near
Lisbon from rocks of the Secondary epoch by a great sheet of basalt. The
uppermost of these Secondary rocks is the hippurite limestone. It was
found that no building on the blue clay escaped destruction, none on any
of the Tertiary deposits escaped serious injury, and all on the
hippurite limestone and basalt were undamaged. The line at which the
earthquake ceased to be destructive thus corresponded exactly with the
boundary of the Tertiary deposits.
At the beginning of the 19th century the French invasion, followed by
the removal of the court to Rio de Janeiro, the Peninsular War, the loss
of Brazil and a period of revolution and dynastic trouble, resulted in
the utter decadence of Lisbon, from which the city only recovered after
1850 (see PORTUGAL: _History_).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Every book which deals with the topography, trade or
history of Portugal as a whole necessarily devotes a portion of its
space to the capital; see PORTUGAL: _Bibliography_. The following
treat more exclusively of Lisbon: A. Dayot, _Lisbonne_ (No. ix. of the
"_Capitales du monde_" series) (Paris, 1892); Freire de Oliveira,
_Elementos para a historia do municipio de Lisboa_ (9 vols., Lisbon,
1885-1898); J. de Castilho, _Lisboa antiga_ (7 vols., Lisbon, 1890),
and (by the same author) _A Ribeira de Lisboa_ (Lisbon, 1893).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] This figure represents the population of a smaller area than that
of modern Lisbon, for the civic boundaries were extended by a decree
dated the 23rd of December 1886.
LISBURN, a market town, and cathedral city of Co. Antrim, Ireland,
situated in a beautiful and fertile district on the Lagan, and on the
Great Northern railway, 8 m. S.S.W. of Belfast. Pop. (1901) 11,461.
Christ Church (1622) which possesses a fine octagonal spire, is the
cathedral church of the united Protestant dioceses of Down, Connor and
Dromore, and contains a monument to Jeremy Taylor, who was bishop of the
see. The public park was presented to the town by Sir Richard Wallace
(d. 1890), and after his death the castle gardens were also given to the
town. The staple manufacture is linen, especially damasks and muslins,
originally introduced by Huguenots. There are also bleaching and dyeing
works, and a considerable agricultural trade. The town is governed by an
urban district council. The ruins of Castle Robin, 2 m. N. of the town,
stand on a summit of the White Mountains, and the building dates from
the time of Queen Elizabeth. At Drumbo, 3½ m. E. of Lisburn, is one of
the finest examples of early fortification in Ireland, known as the
Giant's Ring, with a cromlech in the centre. Here are also a round tower
and the remains of a church ascribed to St Patrick.
In the reign of James I., Lisburn, which was then known as Lisnegarvy
(Gambler's Fort), was an inconsiderable village, but in 1627 it was
granted by Charles I. to Viscount Conway, who erected the castle for his
residence, and laid the foundation of the prosperity of the town by the
introduction of English and Welsh settlers. In November 1641 the town
was taken by the insurgents, who on the approach of superior numbers set
fire to it. The troops of Cromwell gained a victory near the town in
1648, and the castle surrendered to them in 1650. The church was
constituted a cathedral in 1662 by Charles II., from whom the town
received the privilege of returning two members to parliament, but after
the Union it returned only one and in 1885 ceased to be a parliamentary
borough. Lisburn gives the titles of earl and viscount to the family of
Vaughan.
LISIEUX, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in
the department of Calvados, 30 m. E. of Caen by rail. Pop. (1906)
15,194. Lisieux is prettily situated in the valley of the Touques at its
confluence with the Orbiquet. Towers of the 16th century, relics of the
old fortifications, remain, and some of the streets, bordered throughout
by houses of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, retain their medieval
aspect. The church of St Peter, formerly a cathedral, is reputed to be
the first Gothic church built in Normandy. Begun in the latter half of
the 12th century it was completed in the 13th and 16th centuries. There
is a lantern-tower over the crossing and two towers surmount the west
façade, one only of which has a spire, added towards the end of the 16th
century. In the interior there is a Lady-Chapel, restored in the 15th
century by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, one of the judges of Joan of Arc. The
church of St Jacques (late 15th century) contains beautiful glass of the
Renaissance, some remarkable stalls and old frescoes, and a curious
picture on wood, restored in 1681. The church of St Désir (18th century)
once belonged to a Benedictine abbey. The old episcopal palace near the
cathedral is now used as a court-house, museum, library and prison, and
contains a beautiful hall called the salle dorée. Lisieux is the seat of
a sub-prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a
chamber of arts and manufactures, a board of trade arbitrators and a
communal college. Its manufactures of woollens are important, and
bleaching, wool and flax-spinning, tanning, brewing, timber-sawing,
metal-founding, and the manufacture of machinery, hosiery and boots and
shoes are carried on; there is trade in grain, cattle and cheese.
In the time of Caesar, Lisieux, under the name of _Noviomagus_, was the
capital of the Lexovii. Though destroyed by the barbarians, by the 6th
century it had become one of the most important towns of Neustria. Its
bishopric, suppressed in 1802, dates from that period. In 877 it was
pillaged by the Normans; and in 911 was included in the duchy of
Normandy by the treaty of St Clair-sur-Epte. Civil authority was
exercised by the bishop as count of the town. In 1136 Geoffrey
Plantagenet laid siege to Lisieux, which had taken the side of Stephen
of Blois. The town was not reduced till 1141, by which time both it and
the neighbourhood had been brought to the direst extremities of famine.
In 1152 the marriage of Henry II. of England to Eleanor of Guienne,
which added so largely to his dominions, was celebrated in the
cathedral. Thomas à Becket took refuge here, and some vestments used by
him are shown in the hospital chapel. Taken by Philip Augustus and
reunited to France in 1203, the town was a frequent subject of dispute
between the contending parties during the Hundred Years' War, the
religious wars, and those of the League.
LISKEARD, a market town and municipal borough in the Bodmin
parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 15 m. W.N.W. of Plymouth,
on the Great Western and the Liskeard and Looe railways. Pop. (1901)
4010. It lies high, above two small valleys opening to that of the Looe
river, in a hilly, picturesque district. The Perpendicular church of St
Martin, with a tower of earlier date, having a Norman arch, is one of
the largest ecclesiastical buildings in the county. The site of a castle
built by Richard, brother of Henry III. and earl of Cornwall, is
occupied by public gardens. At the grammar school, which formerly
occupied a building in those gardens, Dr John Wolcot, otherwise known as
Peter Pindar, was educated. Liskeard was formerly an important mining
centre. Its manufactures include leather and woollen goods, and there
are iron foundries. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12
councillors. Area, 2704 acres.
Liskeard (Liscarret) was at the time of the Domesday Survey an important
manor with a mill rendering 12d. yearly and a market rendering 4s. By
the Conqueror it had been given to the count of Mortain by whom it was
held in demesne. Ever since that time it has passed with the earldom or
duchy of Cornwall. The fertility of its soil and the river Looe probably
led to early settlement at Liskeard. Richard, king of the Romans,
recognized its natural advantages and built the manor house or castle
and resided there occasionally. In 1240 he constituted Liskeard a free
borough and its burgesses freemen with all the liberties enjoyed by the
burgesses of Launceston and Helston. In 1266 he granted fairs at the
Feasts of the Assumption and St Matthew. His son Edmund earl of Cornwall
in 1275 granted to the burgesses for a yearly rent of £18 (sold by
William III. to Lord Somers) the borough in fee farm with its mills,
tolls, fines and pleas, pleas of the crown excepted. Liskeard was made a
coinage town for tin in 1304. Edward the Black Prince secured to the
burgesses in 1355 immunity from pleas outside their franchise for
trespass done within the borough. Queen Elizabeth granted a charter of
incorporation in 1580 under which there were to be a mayor, recorder and
eight councillors. This charter was surrendered to Charles II. in 1680
and a new one granted by his brother under which the corporation became
a self-elected body. From 1295 to 1832 Liskeard sent two members to the
House of Commons. The parliamentary franchise, at first exercised by the
burgesses, was vested by James' charter in the corporation and freemen.
By determining to admit no new freemen the voters became reduced to
between 30 and 60. Sir Edward Coke was returned for this borough in
1620, and Edward Gibbon the historian in 1774. In 1832 Liskeard was
deprived of one of its members and in 1885 it became merged in the
county.
Besides the fairs already mentioned a third was added by Elizabeth's
charter to be held on Ascension Day. These are still among the most
considerable cattle fairs in the county. The same charter ratified a
market on Mondays and provided for another on Saturdays. The latter is
now held weekly, the former twice a month. The flour mill at Lamellion
mentioned in the charter of 1275, and probably identical with the mill
of the Domesday Survey, is still driven by water.