Arriving in Coimbra, we soon settled into our accommodation and headed off for a visit to Universidade de Coimbra. The university was founded in Portugal in 1290 and transferred to the former royal palace in Coimbra in 1537. This city is the former capital of Portugal.
To get to the university, you climb up and up and up the steep steps and streets. You certainly work your way to the top but the reward is not a higher degree but magnificent views making it all worthwhile.
The university, called the Oxford of Portugal, is an impressive place. We entered the courtyard through the Porta Ferrea - iron gate - to the magnificent facades of the buildings, the statue of king Joao 111 and the views over the valley.
We looked through the Biblioteca, a magnificent baroque library built in 1717 and considered to be the best in Europe. It has a wonderful collection of historic volumes housed in gilded rooms.
The most fascinating thing about the library, is that it houses a colony of bats. Each night they feed on the tiny insects inside the building, thus saving the books from damage. The tables and furniture are themselves protected from damage by being covered each night with leather cloths and the library is cleaned each morning. Bats in the Biblioteca!
Next we went in to the Prisco Academica - university prison, a private gaol dating from the university's privileged position of independence and authority. Amongst the 'crimes' that could land you in gaol were damaging a book or failure to show respect to a professor. perhaps we could reintroduce these for Australian schools and universities as part of a new discipline code. The mind boggles as what term would be imposed for not doing your homework, talking in class or graffiti on the toilet wall!
We also visited the wonderful graduates' hall and the chapel along with the old and new cathedrals of Coimbra - a great visit.
PS it is hard to believe but we just walked back up all the steps to post this blog from the university Internet site!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Bats in the library - that is too weird!
Do you realise you have posted about going up and down stairs on several occasions, imagine how fit you're getting!
Climbing stairs is our new specialty although we did catch the no. 37 to avoid some today.
I am in utter shock about the bats in the library. What a fascinating method of bug control. I think maybe they should move all the bats from the Botanic Gardens into the State Library!
I also like the idea of bats in a library. I have been in a few librarys that were run by (old) bats... None related to me of course.
Even more appealing of course is a prison for those failing to respect teachers or books. Kind of like a 'time out table' behind bars. I will discuss it with my class and let you know what they think!
Bonjorno, robandgail.blogspot.com!
[url=http://viagrareta.pun.pl/ ]Vendita viagra [/url] [url=http://cialisybea.pun.pl/ ]Comprare cialis in Italia[/url] [url=http://athe.pun.pl/ ]Acquisto in Italia[/url] [url=http://viagraradf.pun.pl/ ]Acquistare viagra in Italia[/url] [url=http://viagraonline.pun.pl ]Acquisto viagra in Italia[/url] [url=http://viagracqui.pun.pl/ ]Compra viagra [/url]
Post a Comment