Clarissa in Coimbra

Before we left for Bussaco we spent the day on the other side of the Mondego river  visiting the two old convents of Saint Clara and the Quinta das lagrimas, which Clarissa writes about in her journal. The old convent was already replaced in her time by a newer one, higher up away from the river, which constantly flooded the old one. The contrast was huge.The old
one has been beautifully restored and displayed, with an exhibition about the nuns' lives. The newer one (mid 17th century!) had a surly ticket seller, no information and  no interest in my story of Clarissa's visit. There was no trace of the organ where the nuns made her play God save the KING, but Samuel found the door in the grill separating the nuns from the world, through which she was carried. FASCINATING. 

At the Quinta das lagrimas Nicholas Trant had placwd a stone with some lines from a poem to commemorate the murder of Ines, a famous prince's mistress. There was a stone there, but with different lines crom the poem to those clarissa quotes, and all the lealets say it was Wellington whoplaced the stone there. I guess we'll never know the truth.

A battlefield (or a tree covered hill)

Last night, we went to a bar to experience some Fado.  Fado is singing accompanied by guitar, with a common theme of loss and longing, thought there seemed to be an element of humour to what we heard last night.

Interpretation by non portugese speakers is fairly hard if not impossible however.

We also had a further look at the buildings of Coimbra last night and went into the university psychology departement housed in a friary complete with cloisters decorated with 17 century tiles with biblical themes and labels for the different departements of the psychology faculty.

We also looked at the University chemistry departement which looks like a Vienese palace. This was constructed at the orders of the Marquis of Pombal, an important 18 century portugese statesman. He is aparently connected to Trant in a way because French troops had desicrated Pompal's grave but Colonel Trant who discovered this soon after as he passed the tomb had the remains collected up and re-buried.

We decided to head for the countryside after the hotel in Coimbra turned out to be full on Saturday night.
We planned a short trip north-east to the site of the battle of Busaco (Busaco is spelt with a c cedila, not s but I cannot enter this).
This is now a (small) national park as it is a very scenic hill covered in trees and commemorates the first defeat of the french who occupied Portugal in the Peninsular war.
We arrived at about 2:30 pm by bus and after checking in at our hotel walked up to the military museum, where we found references to Colonel Trant and a display of weapons as used in the fighting.

The appearance of the battlefield has much changed.t the time of the battle it was scrub. Now it is covered in trees - aparently planted by Carmalites who walled in the site for their devotions after the battle. However there are some huge eucalyptus trees so we think some other agency is now mantaining the site as the Carmalites left in 1836 and Eucalyltus was not widely planted untill after 1965.
However it ended up like this, the area is good for walking and for views of the hills beneath so we very much enjoyed our walk and our visit to the museum that was staffed by an enthusastic member of the army who talked to us very animatedly about the position of Portugal during the Napoleonic wars.

At Coimbra

We arrived at Coimbra yesterday. This was the medeival capital of Portugal and until the 20th cetury, Portugal's only University city.
Its relevance to the trail of Clarissa and her father,Nicolas Trant is that following the French occupation of the city in 1810 it was liberated by a Portugese force under Nicolas Trant.  His victory may have been eased by the limited French garrison as most of the troops in the city were casualties.
Trant raised a volunteer army of Portugese students and seized the city from the French occupying forces.
Cathy has Clarissa's diary which records the welcome gjven to the liberating forces and the subsequent grand reception.
Cathy was given a very helpful reception by the University archive and library who together unearthed a thesis with some relevent material, including pictures of the presumed location of the [19C] reception.
The city itself has a picuresque (if in some parts dilapidated and rather neglected) centre. It is on a hill and tbe streets are often steep. Portugese roads and pavements tend to be formed of two inch granite or limestone mosaics (sometimes witb patterns but often plain) making the steep inclines just a bit harder for the over 60's to traverse.
Happily there is a special (electric)  bus and a lift to make ascending from our hotel to the University easier.
As the University is built around the old Royal court buildings, one might expect some interesting buildings. However Royal patrons seem to have gone to extra special lengths to leave traces of themselves to subsequent generations by creating Baroque extraviganza in the form of a library, Chapel and various halls that are fascinating if rather ovedone to the extent that a new fairly utilitarian set of modern buildings now provides some of the current academic facilities. However as we found on taking the combined ticket to visit of the parts of the University open to visitors, lectures take place inside a kind of Roccoco palace, with lecture theaters (19 century ambiance) leading off a two story cloister adorned with decorative tiles that would not seem out of place in an palace (which indeed it was prior to the sixteenth century.
The original library is is a fantastic structure but wholly unusable as a library, with elaborate gilded decoration and laquered columns supporting shelves of books chosen for their orate spines.
As in Oporto, there seem to be a relatively large number of sixteenth and seventeenth century buildings many of which now house university faculties. Some however seem semi derilect. In tbe city many of the older and more ordinary buildings seem to be abandoned. However some are occupied by student communes or "self styled Republics". Student graffiti appear on many of the walls even  on tbe major buildings.
This all in a city with many churches and a Cathedral with an ornate 15 century alterpiece.

In the national park

[posted by Samuel]
We have spent three nights in the village called Caldes do Geres where Sir Nicolas Trant stayed (along with Clarissa) to recuperate from ill health. It is still a Spa and according to Tanya (who was one of the family running our hotel in Geres) this reputation dates back to the eighteenth century. Geres lies among mountains in a national park to the north of Porto. In fact Spain has a national park which meets the Portugese National Park along the frontier with the Spanish province of Galacia, which is quite close to where we were staying. So for one of our hikes in the mountains we drove up to the Spanish border and crossed over to have lunch in Spain.
We then attempted to follow the Roman road that led back into Portugal. Initially we followed what turned out to be a track leading to the fire watching tower. This had wonderful views of the surrounding hills and the river beneath.
When we had reached the high point, we returned to the border and managed to find the Roman road, which was not particularly straight or easy to walk  along. There are supposed to be Roman milestones on the Roman road but we could not identify them.

Earlier in the day we had stopped on the road and walked for nearly an hour amoung a fairly barren rocky landscape dominated by granite boulders, often piled up on top of one another on mountain peaks. The whole area is very dry. This seems to be a recent climate trend, according to people we spoke to. Twenty years ago, the climate was much wetter. It looks as if the trees and vegitation are suffering from the dry winters and fire is a major risk. When I visited Galcia, the adjoining province of Spain in 1994, it was more like Wales in climate, but the area now feels more like the South of France except that it is COLD. We had to wear fleeces indoors at night. In the mornings, it was chilly but by mid afternoon was tolerable.  Now we have left the mountains it is colder in the evenings but not chilly.

We saw ice in the mountains. Snow is apparently quite common in the first two months of the year.

Inside Casa Vitoria

Cath had an interesting last day in Porto (I did too but since Clarissa is not my ancestor for me there is less imact).

We had visited Casa Vitoria earlier to find it is now used as a court building to which we were not allowed access.
When we returned, Cathy managed to speak to a police officer who was very interested in her story. He said he would try to get permission for us to see inside. We went away to find the other villa that Clarissa had stayed in, eventually finding this but in use by social services. However they let Cathy into part of the biulding (but not me) and she was able to see the garden which Clarrissa remarks on.

When we returned to Casa Vitoria, both of us were given a giuded tour (which included the cells for prisoners - a 20th century addition in the basement).
We also saw the view from the top floor.

We also visited the military museum which displayed map of Porto dedicated to Sir Nicolas Trent [sic].
Hopefully a photo of this map is displayed on this page.

I have pictures of the outside of the two villas but I cannot incorporate them into this blog as they are on the camera. Pictures taken with the smartphone are easy to incorporate but not pictures on the camera.

The search continues...

Tiday we visited several museums to track down stuff about Clarissa. Wealso went to a bookshop which had all sorts of things such as a music box and an original edison phonograph.

w

Oporto, sunshine and on Clarrissa's trail

The city of oporto has wonderfull vistas -it lies on one side of a deep river valkey, and has lots of old buildings. We are staying in an old hotel which seems to have kept many original objects from valve radios to a  telephone exchange. The location is great for reaching the sights and museums. Today we went for a boat trip, and while Cathy researched Clarissa in the archive I took a tram ride to tbe tram museum. The trams are fun - tbey even had freight cars and devoped a modern  looking tram with a sreamlined look.  This was to prevent freeriders hanging onto the outside of the tram - old models had alsorts of things to hang onto outside.
Cathy has located the house that Clarissa inhabited. It is now law courts.
Here is a map mentioning Briadier Trant

Final preparations

We are finishing packing. It seems it will warm up here tomorrow but right now it is very cold. It will be warmer in oporto but the nights seem cold.

We are booking hotels and beginning to pack for our trip to Portugal and Madeira.

Cathy is planning to see some of the places that were visited around 200 years ago by her ancestor, Clarissa Trant. Her father was a general under Wellington during the Peninsular campaign, and he remained in Portugal after the fall of Napoleon as governor of Oporto, which is our first destination.

I have been to Oporto in 1994 on a sailing trip, but only saw the centre of the City which is in the river valley of the Douro. I remember a steep side valley with shops selling all sorts of interesting things, and the moored 'barcos rabelos' (reproductions of the sailing vessels that were used to move wine and port on the river) moored by the Port warehouses, adding to the attraction.