On November 1, 1755, the church was packed with people attending Mass for All Saints Day when the great earthquake hit Lisbon. The roof over the nave and many of the interior pillars collapsed. The church, along with the majority of the rest of Lisbon, burned for three days. The church was gutted, although a couple of the chapels behind the apse survived with roofs intact. Athough a couple half-hearted attempts were made to rebuild it, the project always ran out of steam and/or money.

Over the years, it's been used as a warehouse, an armory, a public refuse pit and stables for the barracks next door. Finally, it was rescued from oblivion and turned into the Museu do Carmo, which today is an eclectic archeological museum.

Here is a picture of what used to be the nave of the main church. It was taken from what used to be the back of the church, by the main entrance. The altar was by the door in the center back, and the arch behind it would not have been bricked in.

The door, of course, would not have been there at all, and the window you can see in that wall is from an entirely different building. It's in an entirely different style as well, a uniquely Portuguese style called Manueline. We were told that it came from the Mosteiro dos Jer�nimos, which apparently has more than enough windows to go around. (!) In fact, the remains of the church, which today resemble a courtyard more than a nave, is littered with various statues, stone crucifixes, and chunks of masonry from other places, as nothing from the interior of the original church survived the fire, barring a few personal effects -- coins, a couple of rosaries, a thimble.

Inside, there's more of the same. The first chapel is occupied by the model of a prehistoric stone hill ring fort in Central Portugal, and a some of the artifacts found during its excavation. The other chapels contain coins, statues, sarcophagi and other items from the Roman occupation of Lisbon, the Visigoths, medieval times right up to items brought to Lisbon during the Victorian period, including a badly damaged Egyptian mummy and two somewhat alarming mummies from Peru -- a young boy and a young girl.

The museum even has its own cat, named Nuno after the church's founder, Nuno �lvarez Perreira. He even decided to join us on our tour.

Nuno examines a prehistoric pot.

If you get the opportunity to visit the Igreja do Carmo you should, by all means, arrange for a tour. I can see how the Museu do Carmo might be a tad bit underwhelming, but our guide was excellent, and our visit there was interesting, informative and well worth it.

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We had a good weekend. Nothing special-- just the usual pub, pub, LNBOE combination. There are very, very few tourists around at this time of year, and the few golfers around are more than happy to eschew a night out for an early tee time. This is nice, because when we go out it's pretty much just us locals, which makes every night seem like a private party. Well, just us and a hoard of teenagers which is, admittedly, less than ideal.

Speaking of which, is there a collective noun for adolescents? Hoard? Herd? Swarm? All viable alternatives, but I think from now on I'll use "tribulation." A Tribulation of Teenagers -- sounds about right, don't you think?

On Sunday we went to a housewarming party, which was mellow and laid-back and thoroughly enjoyable.

In other news, somewhere along the line -- and I don't know where -- I acquired a deep and somewhat painful bruise on my right buttock. Klutz that I am, it surprises me. It shouldn't.

And now it's time to go and play with the laundry again, so I'll leave it at that.