Lisbon hotels collection

Lisbon's pavements are of white limestone and black basalt, cut into small cubes and laid by hand; in the Rossio, they trace a rolling swell. After the great earthquake, the Baixa was rebuilt on a grid, each building braced from within by a cross-framed timber cage, the gaiola, which was tested by marching soldiers around a model. In Belém, the Jerónimos Monastery is built of lioz, a cream limestone quarried nearby; up close, fossil shells show in the columns.