ole bastion is fortified with great merlons,
rising above a rope moulding, each, like those on the tower, bearing a
shield carved with the Cross of the Order of Christ, and by round
turrets corbelled out at the corners. These, like all the turrets, are
capped with melon-shaped stone roofs, and curious finials. Similar
turrets jut out from two corners of the ground floor.

The parapet also of the cloister is interesting. It is divided into
squares, in each of which a quatrefoil encloses a cross of the Order of
Christ. At intervals down the sides are spiral pinnacles, at the corners
columns bearing spheres, and at the south end a tall niche, elaborately
carved, under whose strange canopy stand a Virgin and Child.

The most interesting features of the tower are the balconies. That on
the south side, borne on huge corbels, has in front an arcade of seven
round arches, resting on round shafts with typical Manoelino caps. A
continuous sloping stone roof covers the whole, enriched at the bottom
by a rope moulding, and marked with curious nicks at the top. The
parapet is Gothic and very thin. The other balconies are the same, a
pointed tentlike roof ending in a knob, a parapet whose circles enclose
crosses of the order, but with only two arches in front.

The third story is lit by two light windows on three sides, and on the
south side by two round-headed windows, between which is cut a huge
royal coat-of-arms crowned.

Altogether the building is most picturesque, the balconies are charming,
and the round turrets and the battlements give it a look of strength and
at the same time add greatly to its appearance. The general outline,
however, is not altogether pleasing owing to the setting back of the top
story. (Fig. 62.)

The detail, however, is most interesting. It is throughout Manoelino,
and that too with hardly an admixture of Gothic. There is no naturalism,
and hardly any suggestion of the renaissance, and as befits a fort it is
without any of the exuberance so common to buildings of this time.

Now here again, as at Thomar and Batalha, Haupt has seen a result of
the intercourse with India; both in the balconies and in the turret
roofs[128] he sees a likeness to a temple in Gujerat; and it must be
admitted that in the example he gives the balconies and roofs are not at
all unlike those at Belem. It might further be urged that Garcia de
Resende who designed the tower, if he was never in India himself, formed
part of Do