Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power

Plants 2nd edition - eBook PDF pdf download

https://ebooksecure.com/download/advances-in-steam-turbines-for-
modern-power-plants-ebook-pdf/

Download more ebook from https://ebooksecure.com

We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebooksecure.com
to discover even more!

Advances in Power Boilers 1st Edition - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/advances-in-power-boilers-ebook-
pdf/

Carbon Capture Technologies for Gas-Turbine-Based Power

Plants 1st Edition - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/carbon-capture-technologies-for-
gas-turbine-based-power-plants-ebook-pdf/

Thermodynamic Analysis and Optimization of Geothermal

Power Plants 1st edition - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/thermodynamic-analysis-and-
optimization-of-geothermal-power-plants-ebook-pdf/

(eBook PDF) Advances in Health Care Organization Theory

2nd Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-advances-in-health-care-
organization-theory-2nd-edition/
Advances in Streamflow Forecasting: From Traditional to
Modern Approaches 1st Edition Priyanka Sharma - eBook
PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/advances-in-streamflow-
forecasting-from-traditional-to-modern-approaches-ebook-pdf/

Advances in Legumes for Sustainable Intensification 1st

edition - eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/advances-in-legumes-for-
sustainable-intensification-ebook-pdf/

(eBook PDF) Sources for Europe in the Modern World with

Guided Writing Exercises 2nd Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-sources-for-europe-in-
the-modern-world-with-guided-writing-exercises-2nd-edition/

(eBook PDF) Steam Plant Operation, 10th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-steam-plant-
operation-10th-edition/

Chiral Analysis: Advances in Spectroscopy,

Chromatography and Emerging Methods 2nd edition- eBook
PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/chiral-analysis-advances-in-
spectroscopy-chromatography-and-emerging-methods-ebook-pdf/
Advances in Steam Turbines for
Modern Power Plants
Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy

Advances in Steam
Turbines for Modern
Power Plants
Second Edition

Edited by

Tadashi Tanuma
Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan
Woodhead Publishing is an imprint of Elsevier
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek
permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our
arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright
Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by
the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and
experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices,
or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described
herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety
and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or
editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter
of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods,
products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
ISBN: 978-0-12-824359-6 (print)
ISBN: 978-0-323-91551-9 (online)

For information on all Woodhead Publishing publications

visit our website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals

Publisher: Charlotte Cockle

Acquisitions Editor: Rachel Pomery
Editorial Project Manager: Chris Hockaday
Production Project Manager: Debasish Ghosh
Cover Designer: Christian J. Bilbow
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India
Contents

List of contributors xvii

Part I Steam Turbine Cycles and Cycle Design Optimization 1

1 Introduction to steam turbines for power plants 3
T. Tanuma
1.1 Features of steam turbines 3
1.2 Roles of steam turbines in power generation 6
1.3 Technology trends of steam turbines 7
1.3.1 Steam turbines for thermal power plants
(except combined cycle) 7
1.3.2 Steam turbines for combined-cycle power plants 9
1.3.3 Steam turbines for nuclear power plants 9
1.3.4 Steam turbines for geothermal, solar thermal, and
bioenergy power plants 9
1.4 The aim of this book 9
References 10

2 Steam turbine cycles and cycle design optimization:

the Rankine cycle, thermal power cycles, and integrated
gasification-combined cycle power plants 11
A. Ohji and M. Haraguchi
2.1 Introduction 11
2.2 Basic cycles of steam turbine plants 11
2.2.1 Rankine cycle 12
2.2.2 Theoretical thermal efficiency of the Rankine cycle 14
2.2.3 Influence of design parameter on thermal efficiency 16
2.2.4 Reheat cycle 18
2.2.5 Regenerating cycle 19
2.2.6 Reheat regenerating cycle 20
2.2.7 Calculation of thermal efficiency for the thermal power station 21
2.3 Types of steam turbines 23
2.3.1 Condensing turbine 23
2.3.2 Backpressure turbine 23
2.3.3 Extraction condensing turbine 25
2.3.4 Mixed-pressure turbine 26
vi Contents

2.4 Various steam turbine cycles and technologies to improve thermal

efficiency 29
2.4.1 Steam turbine cycle for petrochemical plant 29
2.4.2 Gas- and steam-turbine-combined cycle 30
2.4.3 Cogeneration system 32
2.4.4 Ultra-supercritical pressure thermal power plant 32
2.4.5 Advanced USC pressure thermal power plant 36
2.4.6 Integrated coal gasification-combined cycle power plant 36
2.4.7 Advanced cycle 38
2.5 Conclusion 40
References 40
3 Steam turbine cycles and cycle design optimization: advanced
ultra-supercritical thermal power plants and nuclear power plants 41
J. Tominaga
3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 Advanced ultra-supercritical thermal power plants 41
3.2.1 Progress of steam condition improvement in
fossil-fired power plants 41
3.2.2 Cycle and turbine design optimization 43
3.2.3 Features of advanced ultra-supercritical turbines and
technical considerations 46
3.3 Nuclear power plants 48
3.3.1 Cycle and features of boiling water reactor 48
3.3.2 Cycle and features of pressurized water reactor 51
3.3.3 Cycle and turbine design optimization 53
3.3.4 Features of nuclear turbines and technical considerations 54
3.3.5 Features of small modular reactor and its steam turbine 55
3.4 Conclusion 58
Acknowledgments 59
References 59
4 Steam turbine cycles and cycle design optimization: combined
cycle power plants 61
Raub W. Smith
4.1 Definitions 61
4.2 Introduction to combined cycle power plants 63
4.2.1 History of gas turbine combined cycle plants 64
4.3 Combined cycle thermodynamics 64
4.3.1 Thermal cycle overview 64
4.3.2 Heat recovery considerations 69
4.3.3 Efficiency definitions 76
4.4 Markets served 80
4.4.1 Power generation 80
4.4.2 Cogeneration 80
4.4.3 District heating 81
Contents vii

4.4.4 Power generation 1 concentrated solar power 81

4.4.5 Integrated gasification combined cycle 82
4.4.6 Carbon capture and storage 82
4.5 Major plant systems overview 87
4.5.1 Plant configurations: single and multishaft 87
4.5.2 Gas turbine 88
4.5.3 Heat recovery steam generator 91
4.5.4 Steam turbine 91
4.5.5 Balance of plant 92
4.5.6 Gas turbine combined cycle plant design considerations 96
4.6 Combined cycles trends 100
4.6.1 Steam conditions 100
4.6.2 Alternate bottoming cycle working fluids 100
4.7 Conclusion 101
References 101

5 Steam turbine life cycle cost evaluations and comparison with

other power systems 103
T. Nakata
5.1 Introduction 103
5.2 Cost estimation and comparison with other power systems 104
5.3 Technological learning 106
5.3.1 Technological change and technological learning 106
5.3.2 Application of technological learning on R&D investment 107
5.4 The modeling of technological learning 108
5.4.1 Learning curve definition 108
5.4.2 Two-factors learning curve 111
5.4.3 Technological learning combined with energy modeling 111
5.4.4 Application to sustainable energy system design 113
5.5 Conclusions 114
References 114

Part II Steam Turbine Analysis, Measurement and

Monitoring for Design Optimization 117
6 Design and analysis for aerodynamic efficiency enhancement of
steam turbines 119
T. Tanuma
6.1 Introduction 119
6.2 Overview of losses in steam turbines 119
6.3 Overview of aerodynamic design of steam turbines 124
6.4 Design and analysis for aerodynamic efficiency enhancement 126
6.4.1 Blade profile design and analysis 126
6.4.2 Turbine blade and stage design and analysis 128
viii Contents

6.4.3 Design optimization of steam turbine blades and stages 131

6.5 Future trends 134
6.6 Conclusions 135
References 135

7 Mechanical design and vibration analysis of steam turbine blades 139

Yasutomo Kaneko
7.1 Categories of steam turbine blade vibration 139
7.1.1 Forced vibration of the blade 140
7.1.2 Self-excited vibration of the blade 143
7.1.3 Vibration due to mistuned phenomena 144
7.2 Mechanical design of the blade 145
7.2.1 Summary of the mechanical design of the blade 145
7.2.2 Analysis of natural frequency 146
7.2.3 Analysis of resonant stress due to the stage interaction force 149
7.2.4 Analysis of the resonant response due to the shock load 150
7.2.5 Analysis of random vibration 153
7.2.6 Analysis of blade flutter 154
7.2.7 Analysis of blade damping 156
7.2.8 Analysis of mistuned system 157
7.3 Measurement and guideline for blade vibration 159
Reference 161

8 Steam turbine rotor design and rotor dynamics analysis 163

Yasutomo Kaneko, Rimpei Kawashita and Hiroshi Kanki
8.1 Categories of steam turbine rotor vibration 163
8.1.1 Forced vibration of a steam turbine rotor 164
8.1.2 Self-excited vibration of steam turbine rotor 170
8.1.3 Torsional vibration 176
8.2 Mechanical design of steam turbine rotors 178
8.2.1 Overview of different rotor design and technology 178
8.2.2 Summary of mechanical design 179
8.2.3 Rotor dynamics analysis of steam turbine rotor 181
8.2.4 Evaluation of rotor dynamics (lateral vibration) 186
8.2.5 Evaluation of rotor dynamics (torsional vibration) 190
8.3 Measurement and guidelines for rotor vibration 190
8.3.1 Measurement of steam turbine rotor vibration 190
8.3.2 Allowable rotor vibration 192
References 192

9 Steam turbine design for load-following capability and highly

efficient partial operation 195
Akinori Tani
9.1 Introduction 195
9.1.1 Shortening the start-up time of turbines 196
Contents ix

9.1.2 Increasing the maximum load of plants 196

9.1.3 Lowering the minimum operation load of plants 196
9.1.4 Improving the load-following capability (controllability
of load control) of plants 196
9.1.5 Improving the load-frequency response of plants 196
9.1.6 Contribution to grid system stabilization capability 197
9.2 Solution for grid code requirement 197
9.3 Load-frequency control of thermal power plants 200
9.4 Current capacity of thermal power governor-free operation and
load-frequency control 201
9.5 Over load valve 202
9.6 Requirement for the accuracy of simulation models 206
9.7 Conclusion 207
References 207

10 Analysis and design of wet-steam stages 209

S. Senoo and A.J. White
10.1 Introduction 209
10.1.1 An overview of wet-steam phenomena 210
10.1.2 Implications for turbine design 212
10.2 Basic theory and governing equations 214
10.2.1 Gas-dynamic equations 214
10.2.2 Formation and growth of the liquid phase 216
10.3 Numerical methods 221
10.3.1 Evaluation of steam properties 222
10.3.2 Fully Eulerian methods 224
10.3.3 The standard method of moments 225
10.3.4 Mixed Eulerian Lagrangian calculations 226
10.3.5 Other methods 228
10.3.6 Examples of application 230
10.4 Measurement methods 238
10.4.1 Fine droplets 238
10.4.2 Coarse water droplets 240
10.4.3 Unsteady flow 243
10.4.4 Pitot loss measurements 248
10.5 Design considerations 251
10.5.1 Performance estimation in wet steam 251
10.5.2 Water droplet erosion 252
Acknowledgments 257
Notation 257
References 258
x Contents

11 Solid particle erosion analysis and protection design for steam

turbines 267
H. Nomoto
11.1 Introduction 267
11.2 Susceptible area of erosion 267
11.3 Considerations on boiler design and plant design 269
11.4 Considerations on turbine design and operation mode 270
11.4.1 Size and number of blade 270
11.4.2 Operational mode (nozzle governing and throttle
governing) 271
11.5 Result of erosion 273
11.5.1 Efficiency deterioration 273
11.5.2 Rotor vibration 276
11.6 Considerations of parameters on erosion and countermeasure 281
11.6.1 Effect of impinge angle 281
11.6.2 Effect of impinge velocity 281
11.6.3 Effect of material 283
11.6.4 Coatings 283
11.7 Conclusion 286
References 286

12 Steam turbine monitoring technology, validation, and

verification tests for power plants 287
D.R. Cornell
12.1 Introduction to power plant testing and monitoring 287
12.2 Performance type testing 289
12.2.1 Acceptance testing 289
12.2.2 Testing of steam turbines in fossil-fired units 289
12.2.3 Enthalpy drop test 291
12.2.4 Heat rate determination from testing 292
12.2.5 Full-scale ASME PTC 6 test 292
12.2.6 Alternative test ASME PTC 6 294
12.2.7 ASME PTC 6S test 295
12.2.8 Output capacity test 295
12.2.9 Testing of steam turbines in combined-cycle units 295
12.2.10 Testing of steam turbines in nuclear plants 297
12.3 Steam turbine component-type testing 299
12.3.1 Blade vibration testing 299
12.3.2 Steam turbine rotor train testing 300
12.3.3 Steam turbine structures testing 301
12.3.4 Steam turbine aerodynamic testing 301
12.4 Steam turbine monitoring 303
12.5 Summary 305
12.6 Power plant testing—a look ahead 305
References 306
Contents xi

Part III Development of Materials, Blades and

Important Parts of Steam Turbines 307
13 Development in materials for ultra-supercritical and advanced
ultra-supercritical steam turbines 309
H. Nomoto
13.1 Introduction 309
13.2 Efficiency improvement of ultra-supercritical and advanced
ultra-supercritical turbines 311
13.2.1 Definition of ultra-supercritical and advanced
ultra-supercritical 311
13.2.2 Efficiency of ultra-supercritical and advanced
ultra-supercritical 311
13.3 Material development for ultra-supercritical steam turbines 313
13.3.1 General considerations 313
13.3.2 Rotor material 314
13.3.3 Blade material 317
13.3.4 Casting 318
13.4 Material development for advanced ultra-supercritical steam
turbines 320
13.4.1 Rotor material 320
13.4.2 Blade and bolt material 323
13.4.3 Casing and valve material 324
13.5 Conclusion 326
References 326

14 Development of last-stage long blades for steam turbines 329

T. Tanuma
14.1 Introduction 329
14.2 Design space for last-stage long blade development 331
14.3 Main features of modern last-stage blades 333
14.4 Design methodology for last-stage long blades 334
14.4.1 Technical features of last-stage long blades 334
14.4.2 Aerodynamic design 335
14.4.3 Mechanical design 343
14.4.4 Material selection and material tests 348
14.5 Model turbine tests and measurements 349
14.5.1 Efficiency and flow measurements 349
14.6 Conclusions 354
References 355

15 Sealing designs and analyses for steam turbines 359

T. Tanuma and J. Tominaga
15.1 Introduction 359
15.2 Steam leakages in steam turbines and sealing designs 360
xii Contents

15.3 Impact of steam leakages on steam turbine efficiencies 365

15.4 Labyrinth seals 366
15.5 Joint surface sealing 370
15.6 Analysis and experiment for sealing designs 371
15.7 Advanced sealing technologies 377
15.7.1 Active clearance control 378
15.7.2 Brush seal 379
15.7.3 Leaf seal 379
15.7.4 Abradable seal 380
15.8 Conclusions 381
References 382

16 Advanced technologies for steam turbine bearings 383

Paolo Pennacchi
16.1 Geometry of oil-film bearing 383
16.1.1 Journal bearings 383
16.1.2 Thrust and combined bearings 387
16.2 Bearing design 389
16.2.1 Thrust bearings 391
16.2.2 Journal bearings 400
16.2.3 Preload effects 402
16.2.4 Temperature and vibration measurements 403
16.2.5 Oil flow supply 405
16.3 Journal bearing testing 411
16.3.1 Tilting-pad journal bearing test-rig 412
16.3.2 Sleeve bearing test-rig 428
16.4 Thrust bearing testing 429
16.5 Bearing coating materials 430
16.5.1 Low friction alloys (white metals) 431
16.5.2 Polymeric materials 434
16.6 Reduction of bearing power loss 444
16.7 Conclusions 444
Acknowledgments 445
References 445

17 Steam valves and turbine inlet flow path design 449

L. Paulukuhn, M. Deckers, A. Kaliwoda and S. Hecker
17.1 Introduction 449
17.2 Steam turbine valves 450
17.2.1 Valve types 450
17.2.2 Turbine connections 451
17.2.3 Stop valve 453
17.2.4 Control valve 454
17.3 Steam turbine inlets 455
17.3.1 Design considerations 455
Contents xiii

17.3.2 Design features 458

17.4 Conclusions 461
References 461

18 Advanced steam turbine technologies and countermeasures to

neutralize the rapid load changes due to the increasing power plants
using renewable energy 463
Masato Ohta
18.1 Introduction 463
18.2 History of increasing the efficiency of coal-fired power
generation to higher temperatures and pressure 464
18.3 Influence of the spread of renewable energy 464
18.4 Grid code 465
18.5 Primary response 465
18.6 Design and evaluation of low-pressure end blades 468
18.7 Fast start-up and thermal stress prediction 468
18.8 Measures to reduce thermal stress 470
18.9 Measures to decrease the minimum load 471
References 474

19 Manufacturing technologies for key steam turbine components 475

Ivan McBean
19.1 Introduction 475
19.2 Manufacturing documentation 476
19.3 Castings and forgings 477
19.4 Casings 478
19.5 Rotors 479
19.6 Blade manufacture 482
19.7 Inspection technologies 485
19.8 Conclusion 486
References 487

Part IV Turbine Retrofitting and Advanced Applications

in Power Generation 489
20 Steam turbine retrofitting for the life extension of power plants 491
Y. Enomoto
20.1 Comprehensive maintenance planning and new technologies
for steam turbine retrofitting 491
20.2 Age deterioration and lifetime of the steam turbine 491
20.2.1 Material deterioration 493
20.2.2 Performance deterioration 502
20.3 Outline of retrofitting for life extension 506
20.3.1 Steam turbine integrity inspection 509
xiv Contents

20.3.2 Steam turbine life assessment program 509

20.3.3 Life extension and performance improvement 517
20.4 Technology for higher efficiency and other benefits 517
20.4.1 Performance improvement technology 517
20.4.2 Repair technology 525
20.5 Summary 529
References 530

21 Steam turbine retrofits for power increase and efficiency

enhancement 531
Ivan McBean
21.1 Overview 531
21.2 Introduction 531
21.3 Improvement of plant performance 533
21.4 Key development processes 538
21.5 High-pressure and intermediate-pressure turbine retrofits 540
21.6 Low-pressure turbine retrofits 541
21.7 Summary 547
Nomenclature 547
References 548

22 Advanced geothermal steam turbines 549

Y. Sakai
22.1 Introduction 549
22.1.1 Outline of geothermal power generation 549
22.1.2 Brief history of geothermal power generation 556
22.2 Construction of modern geothermal steam turbines 557
22.2.1 Features of geothermal steam turbines 557
22.2.2 Types of geothermal steam turbines 559
22.2.3 Components and materials of geothermal steam turbines 562
22.2.4 Design characteristics of the latest geothermal steam
turbines 564
22.3 Technologies to enhance reliability of geothermal steam turbines 568
22.3.1 Corrosion problems and solutions 568
22.3.2 Measures against water-droplet erosion 574
22.3.3 Measures against scale problems 574
22.4 Technologies to enhance performance of geothermal steam
turbines 576
22.4.1 New-generation low-pressure blades for geothermal
steam turbines 576
22.4.2 High-load, high-efficiency reaction blades 577
22.4.3 High-performance, compact exhaust casing 578
22.4.4 Performance improvement by retrofit of existing
geothermal steam turbines 580
Contents xv

22.5 Operational experiences and lessons learned 580

22.5.1 Erosion 581
22.5.2 Erosion corrosion 581
22.5.3 Stress corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue 582
22.6 Future view of geothermal power generation and challenges 585
References 585

23 Steam turbines for solar thermal and other renewable energies 587
N. Okita, T. Takahashi and K. Nishimura
23.1 Introduction 587
23.2 Pilot plant of solar thermal and biomass binary generation
system in Japan 587
23.3 The steam turbine for solar thermal technology 588
23.3.1 Features of the steam turbine 588
23.3.2 Steam condition and performance 590
23.3.3 Existing steam turbine size and steam condition 591
23.4 Steam turbine for organic Rankine cycle 591
23.4.1 Features of organic Rankine cycle systems and turbines 591
23.4.2 Centrifugal type organic Rankine cycle turbine 594
23.4.3 Screw type organic Rankine cycle turbine 596
23.5 Future applications 598
23.5.1 Combined system of concentrating solar power and
biomass binary generation 598
23.5.2 Secondary use of the lower-temperature heat exhausted
by the generating system 598
23.5.3 Organic Rankine cycle system application for ships 599
References 599

24 Advanced ultrasupercritical pressure steam turbines and their

combination with carbon capture and storage systems 601
H. Nomoto
24.1 Introduction 601
24.2 Advanced ultrasupercritical turbine 602
24.3 Carbon capture technology 602
24.3.1 Concept of the technology 602
24.3.2 Pilot plants and demonstration plants 605
24.3.3 Storage and utilization of carbon dioxide 608
24.4 Combination of advanced ultrasupercritical turbine and
carbon capture and storage 610
24.4.1 Comparison of three major technologies 610
24.4.2 Integration of carbon capture plant and power
generation plant 613
24.5 Conclusions 618
References 619
xvi Contents

25 Steam turbine roles and necessary technologies for stabilization

of the electricity grid in the renewable energy era 621
N. Funahashi and Y. Takagi
25.1 Introduction 621
25.2 Issue of the renewable energy era 624
25.2.1 Adjustment function of supply and demand balance 624
25.2.2 Fluctuation of variable renewable energy 626
25.2.3 Issue of grid operating for the renewable energy era 628
25.3 Requirements of steam turbine power generation system 631
25.3.1 Quick start-up 632
25.3.2 Enhancement of output change rate 632
25.3.3 Enhancement of allowance of rotating speed 632
25.3.4 Improving minimum-load and implementation of
net-zero power generation 635
25.4 Innovation and future technologies 635
References 637

26 Conclusions 639
T. Tanuma
26.1 Conclusions 639
Acknowledgments 642

Index 643
List of contributors

D.R. Cornell GE Power, Schenectady, NY, United States

M. Deckers Siemens Energy AG, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

Y. Enomoto Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yokohama, Japan

N. Funahashi Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering Society, Tokyo, Japan

M. Haraguchi Mitsubisi Heavy Industry, Ltd., Yokohama, Japan

S. Hecker Siemens Energy AG, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

A. Kaliwoda Siemens Energy AG, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

Yasutomo Kaneko Ryukoku University, Otsu, Japan

Hiroshi Kanki Former Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

Rimpei Kawashita Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Takasago, Japan

Ivan McBean GE Steam Power, Baden, Switzerland

T. Nakata Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

K. Nishimura Kobe Steel, Ltd., Kobe, Japan

H. Nomoto 8 Rivers Capital, LLC, Durham, NC, United States

A. Ohji Tohoku Techno-Academia, Yokohama, Japan

Masato Ohta Mitsubishi Power, Ltd., Yokohama, Japan

N. Okita Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions Corporation, Yokohama, Japan

L. Paulukuhn Siemens Energy AG, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

xviii List of contributors

Paolo Pennacchi Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano,

Milan, Italy

Y. Sakai Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan

S. Senoo Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Takasago, Japan

Raub W. Smith GE Gas Power, Schenectady, NY, United States

Y. Takagi Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering Society, Tokyo, Japan

T. Takahashi IHI Corporation, Yokohama, Japan

Akinori Tani Toshiba Corporation, Yokohama, Japan

T. Tanuma Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan

J. Tominaga JFE Engineering Corporation, Yokohama, Japan

A.J. White University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Introduction to steam turbines for
power plants 1
T. Tanuma
Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan

1.1 Features of steam turbines

The first steam turbine for power generation was designed and built by Sir Charles
Algernon Parsons in 1884 in England. Steam turbines have been key components of
electrical power generation since the 19th century and are one of the distinctive out-
comes of the industrial revolution. Steam turbines have played a major role in
power-generation industries, upgrading technology innovations for more than 130
years, and they continue to do so today.
Steam turbines are turbomachinery prime movers in which stator blades acceler-
ate and swirl high-temperature and high-pressure (HP) steam that is provided from
their boilers around their rotors, and rotating blades receive impulse forces and
reaction forces from the accelerated and swirled steam, and the rotating blades
transmit the torque generated by the steam forces to their rotors. Indeed, the Curtis
turbine stage consists of four or more blade rows. However, each stage of a steam
turbine for power generation usually consists of one stationary blade row and one
rotor blade row. There are many kinds of steam turbines, from single-stage turbines
to multistage turbines that have 30 or more stages. Therefore the capacity range of
a single unit is very wide, from the hundreds-of-kilowatt class to the 1900-MW
class, and the range of applications of steam turbines is also very wide.
Electric power generation is one of the main applications of steam turbines.
Since increasing temperature and pressure of turbine inlet steam increase thermal
efficiency, inlet steam pressures range from 24.1 to 33.0 MPa
g (mega Pascal plus
atmospheric pressure), and temperatures range from 593 C/593 C [HP turbine inlet/
intermediate-pressure (IP) turbine inlet] to 610 C/630 C in typical steam turbines
for modern large-scale thermal power plants. Steam turbines employing these steam
conditions are usually called ultrasupercritical (USC) pressure steam turbines. Unit
power outputs of USC power plants typically range from 600 to 1200 MW for one
turbine unit, because a large capacity for one unit is advantageous for turbine effi-
ciency. As a representative case of USC steam turbines, a steam turbine usually
consists of one single-flow HP turbine, one single-flow or double-flow IP turbine,
and two double-flow low-pressure (LP) turbines with last-stage blades of 1 m or
more in length, because the specific volume of the steam flow at the steam turbine
outlet in a condenser vacuum condition increases up to about 2000-times that of the
inlet. Figs. 1.1 1.3 show typical USC steam turbines for modern power plants.
Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-824359-6.00024-X
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
4 Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants

Fig. 1.1 shows a 700-MW class steam turbine with an HP IP integrated casing
(front side) and two LP casings (rear side). Main steam pipes leading to the HP tur-
bine, hot reheat pipes leading to the IP turbine, and a cross-over pipe connecting IP
exit to LP inlets can be seen in Fig. 1.1. Since the HP IP rotor, two LP rotors, and
a generator rotor are connected in a line, this kind of turbine is called “tandem-com-
pound turbine.”
Fig. 1.2 shows a 1000-MW class steam turbine with a HP casing, a IP casing
and two LP casings. Two cross-over pipes connect two exits of the IP casing to the
inlets of the two LP casings, respectively. While the HP rotor, the IP rotor, and a
generator rotor are connected in a line (primary shaft), the two LP rotors and
another generator rotor are connected in a line (secondary shaft). This kind of tur-
bine with two generators is called “cross compound turbine.”
Owing to recent developments of large-capacity generators and high-efficient LP
last-stage long blades, the power output of one tandem-compound turbine increases up
to 1200 MW. Fig. 1.3 shows a 1000-MW class tandem-compound steam turbine in a
large-capacity power plant. From right to left, HP turbine with two HP valves, IP tur-
bine with two IP valves, two LP turbines and a generator are connected in a line.
In accordance with increasing demands for carbon-neutrality, the number of
renewable or low-carbon emission power plants using small- or medium-sized
steam turbines is increasing. Fig. 1.4 shows a 50-MW class steam turbine in a wood
chip biomass power plant. In general, power-generation capacities of steam turbines
for wood chip biomass power plants are up to 75 MW, HP inlet steam pressures are
10.0 16.7 MPa (abs.), HP inlet steam temperatures are 510 C 566 C and IP inlet
temperatures are 510 C 566 C for re-heart turbines. Usually, the thermal efficien-
cies of small-sized steam turbines were not so high, compared to the efficiencies of

Figure 1.1 A 700-MW class steam turbine in a large-capacity power plant. HP inlet steam:
24.1 MPa 593 C, IP inlet steam: 593 C.
Source: From Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation and Hokuriku Electric
Power Company.
Introduction to steam turbines for power plants 5

Figure 1.2 A 1000-MW class steam turbine in a large-capacity power plant. HP inlet steam:
25.0 MPa 600 C, IP inlet steam: 610 C.
Source: From Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Figure 1.3 A 1000-MW class steam turbine in a large-capacity power plant. HP inlet steam:
up to 33.0 MPa 610 C, IP inlet steam: up to 630 C.
Source: From Siemens Energy.

Figure 1.4 A 50-MW class steam turbine (A) in a wood chip biomass power plant (B). HP
inlet steam: 10.0 MPa, 510 C, nonreheart.
Source: From Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.
6 Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants

large-scale steam turbines of 200 MW or larger capacity. Therefore steam turbine

manufacturers are focusing on the developments of high-efficient small- or
medium-sized steam turbines and the related technologies.

1.2 Roles of steam turbines in power generation

Electricity is the world’s fastest-growing form of end-use energy consumption, as it has
been for many decades. World electricity generation had increased from 21.5 trillion
kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2010 to 26.8 trillion kWh in 2020, and it is projected to
increase to 46.7 trillion kWh in 2050 by a compound annual growth rate of 1.9% [1].
Important factors in electricity demand growth are the population and the economic
growth, especially among the emerging non-organization for economic cooperation and
development (non-OECD) countries [2]. Power systems have continued to evolve to
supply enough electricity into this increasing world market. However, it is predicted
that the major energy source for the growth of the world net electricity generation from
2020 to 2050 is the variable (notstable) renewable energy, that is, solar and wind.
Power-generation methods can be categorized by fuel or energy source as ther-
mal (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), nuclear, and renewable (hydro, wind, bioe-
nergy, geothermal, solar photovoltaics, and solar thermal [e.g. concentrated solar
power (CSP)]). Steam turbines are widely used in coal-fired, natural gas-fired com-
bined, nuclear, bioenergy, geothermal and solar thermal power plants.
Fig. 1.5 shows the world’s total generation capacity trend of steam turbine power
plants [tera-watt (TW)] calculated using world electricity generation capacity by energy
source [1] and estimated power plant configuration ratios for energy sources (power-
generation capacity ratios of steam turbines by related energy sources). The data for
2010 and 2020 are factual, while the data for 2030 2050 show two forecasts. The first

Figure 1.5 World total generation capacity trend of steam turbine power plants (TW).
Introduction to steam turbines for power plants 7

forecast is based on the specific policies that have been announced by governments
around the world [stated policies scenario (STEPS)] and the second forecast is based
on a pathway for the global energy sector to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050
[net-zero emissions (NZE) by 2050 Scenario] [1]. While the world’s electricity genera-
tion is predicted to increase by a factor of 1.7 (STEPS) by 2050 as mentioned above,
the predicted capacity of steam turbine power plants is increasing slightly (STEPS) or
decreases once and increases slightly (NZE). The main reason for this discrepancy
between the growth in electricity demand and the total capacity trend of steam turbine
power plants is the global trend to tackle the causes of global warming, that is, carbon
dioxide gas emissions from energy and industry. However, this figure indicates the
essential roles of steam turbines in power generation now and in the coming decades.
The increasing electricity from variable sustainable energy, that is, solar and wind
causes power system instabilities and it needs stable back-up electricity mainly from
existing thermal power plants in the short term and power plants using nuclear, hydrau-
lic, geothermal, bioenergy, solar thermal energies in the long run. Thermal power plants
using hydrogen or ammonia fuel produced from renewable energies will be promising
stable electricity sources no later than 2050. Thermal power plants with carbon capture
and storage (CCS) systems using bioenergy and even using conventional fossil fuel
will also play the necessary role to provide stable electricity for the sustainable socie-
ties. These stable zero-emission or low-CO2-emission power-generation systems usu-
ally use steam turbines as key components. The gentle but steady sign of total
generation capacity growth of steam turbine power plants of NZE data shown in
Fig. 1.5 indicates the essential roles of steam turbines for power plants.
In addition, it is predicted that steam turbine power plants will be required to stabi-
lize power systems to make better use of fluctuating electricity from rapidly increasing
wind and solar power stations. On the other hand, considering that the current share of
steam turbine power plants is still more than half of the total electricity generation
worldwide in 2020 [1] and about one third of economy-wide CO2 emissions are from
power generation [2], steam turbine power plants are required to enhance thermal effi-
cacy and decrease their emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Consequently, the development and application of the technologies required to
enhance the efficiency and load-following capability of steam turbines for power
generation, and to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, should be promoted
to supply the necessary electricity while reducing global greenhouse gas emissions
currently and in the long term.

1.3 Technology trends of steam turbines

1.3.1 Steam turbines for thermal power plants (except combined
cycle)
1.3.1.1 Increase steam temperature and pressure
The main fuel of current thermal power plants is coal. Coal-fired thermal power
plants can be broadly grouped into four categories, mainly related to the inlet steam
conditions and the level of associated CO2 emissions: subcritical, supercritical/
8 Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants

USC, advanced USC, and CCS fitted. USC technologies of the 600 C-class have
already been applied in many power stations, including newly constructed power
stations in China that currently account for the largest share of global installed
coal-fired capacity. However, advanced USC and CCS-fitted technologies are cur-
rently still under development. Therefore acceleration of development and applica-
tions of advanced USC (700 C 750 C-class inlet steam conditions) and CCS-fitted
technologies should be promoted.

1.3.1.2 Development of highly efficient last-stage long blades

Efficiencies of steam turbines for thermal power plants have been enhanced by
means of increasing capacities to decrease relative clearances and to increase short
blade heights in HP and IP turbines. Development of last-stage long blades has
been key process in increasing turbine capacities. Recently developed 3600-rpm,
48 50-in. last-stage blades seem to have approached the limits of current aero,
mechanical, and material technologies. For tandem-compound turbines, where all
rotors of HP, IP, and LP turbines are connected in line, the current maximum
capacity is approaching the limits of unit generator capacity.
There are new development areas that aim to enhance the efficiency of partial-
load conditions and to enlarge the partial-load operation limits of steam turbines
which will play a key role in the stable supply of electricity affected by fluctuating
electricity from wind and solar power stations connected to the same power grid.
Approaches using fluid structure interaction analyses have been started to intro-
duce new design methodologies for the development of highly efficient and robust
last-stage long blades.

1.3.1.3 Enhancement of efficiency

In HP turbines the efficiencies of first stages and very short blades (less than 2-in.
in height and less than 1.0 in aspect ratio) are low, and these stages still have room
for improvement. Leakage losses in HP turbines are still large and could also be
improved.
In IP turbines, turbine stage efficiencies have been enhanced by introducing
developed three-dimensional designs and new sealing technologies.
In LP turbines, blade losses including last-stage long blades, exhaust losses, wet-
ness losses, and leakage losses are still high. These losses can be reduced by intro-
ducing new technologies, as described in later chapters.

1.3.1.4 Enhancement of operational availability in low-load

conditions and load-following capability
Since steam turbine power plants continue to supply a large proportion of electricity
worldwide, steam turbines need to be enhanced in terms of operational availability
in low-load conditions and load-following capabilities to stabilize fluctuations in
electricity due to the increasing numbers of wind and solar power plants. In
European and other OECD countries, these requirements seem to be stronger than
Introduction to steam turbines for power plants 9

in non-OECD countries, because the electricity share of wind and solar energy in
OECE countries is increasing rapidly in recent years. Necessary technologies are
discussed in later chapters.

1.3.2 Steam turbines for combined-cycle power plants

Since the capacity of gas turbines is increasing, the capacity of steam turbines for
combined-cycle power plants is also increasing to more than 400 MW. Inlet tem-
peratures and reheat temperatures are also increasing up to 600 C. Therefore the
technology trends of combined-cycle steam turbines are almost similar to those of
thermal power steam turbines. However, HP blade heights are very short for single-
shaft configurations, and technologies to enhance short blade efficiencies are still
important development areas.

1.3.3 Steam turbines for nuclear power plants

Efficiency enhancement and water droplet erosion protection technologies of wet
steam turbine stages are common technical subjects for pressurized water reactor
(PWR) and boiling water reactor (BWR) nuclear steam turbines. For small modular
reactors, steam turbines will be much smaller than the current design for PWR and
BWR. Technologies for efficiency enhancement of short-height blades and stages
in wet steam conditions are required.

1.3.4 Steam turbines for geothermal, solar thermal, and

bioenergy power plants
Steam turbines for geothermal, solar thermal, and bioenergy power plants share
common technical subjects with nuclear turbines due to low inlet steam pressures
and also low inlet temperatures. Capacities and efficiencies of geothermal steam
turbines have been increased step by step by introducing technologies for protection
against corrosive gases and scale depositions. Structural designs and turbine control
technologies of steam turbines for solar thermal power plants or CSP plants have
been specialized to maintain high efficiency in daily cyclic operations including
minimum load and to shorten start-up and shut-down duration. Regarding the com-
paratively small-sized designs, technologies for efficiency enhancement of short
height blades and stages in wet steam conditions are also required.

1.4 The aim of this book

The aim of this book is to present important technologies in the design and develop-
ment of steam turbines for modern power plants, showing state-of-the-art detailed
technologies and design methodologies for steam turbine cycles and cycle-design
optimization (Part I), steam turbine analysis, measurement, and monitoring for
10 Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants

design optimization (Part II), development of materials, blades, and important parts
of steam turbines (Part III), and turbine retrofitting and advanced applications in
power generation (Part IV).

References
[1] International Energy Agency. World Energy Outlook 2021 (WEO 2021), IEA, Paris,
France, 2021 pp. 194 209.
[2] U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), International Energy Outlook 2021 (IEO
2021), Narrative (2021) 22 30.
Steam turbine cycles and cycle
design optimization: the Rankine 2
cycle, thermal power cycles, and
integrated gasification-combined
cycle power plants
A. Ohji1 and M. Haraguchi2
1
Tohoku Techno-Academia, Yokohama, Japan, 2Mitsubisi Heavy Industry, Ltd.,
Yokohama, Japan

2.1 Introduction
Steam turbine technology supports our modern life and important industrial activi-
ties in present society. This chapter covers important information on the design of
steam turbine systems. The steam turbine plays an important role in the thermal
power plant. This chapter also includes important information relating to design
optimization for thermal power plants such as the Rankine cycle, thermal-power
cycle, and integrated gasification-combined cycle (IGCC) power plants.
Firstly, descriptions of the basic cycles of steam turbine plants are provided,
including the Rankine cycle, reheat cycle, and regenerative cycle, along with a cal-
culation of thermal efficiency in thermal power plants. Secondly, descriptions of
different steam turbine types are provided, including condensing turbine, backpres-
sure turbine, extraction condensing turbine, and mixed-pressure turbine. Thirdly,
descriptions relating to various steam turbine cycles and technologies to improve
thermal efficiency are provided, such as steam turbine cycles for gas and steam
turbine-combined cycle, ultra-supercritical (USC) thermal power plants, advanced-
USC thermal power plants, IGCC power plants, and power plants using advanced
cycles.

2.2 Basic cycles of steam turbine plants

The steam turbine is used as a prime mover in thermal power plants for power utili-
ties and industrial users or as a large-scale mechanical driver for various industrial
uses. Fig. 2.1 shows the whole conceptual diagram of a typical thermal power plant
for power utilities. The Carnot cycle is the most efficient cycle, but it is not
Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-824359-6.00020-2
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
12 Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants

Chimney Boiler Steam

Dust
Turbine generator building
collector
(Unnecessary
for LNG)
Steam turbine
Transmission line
Generator

Transformer

Forced draft fan

Condenser Substation

Induced draft fan

Fuel
Feed pump Cooling water

Natural gas (LNG) Oil Coal

Figure 2.1 Conceptual diagram of a thermal power station.

suitable to be handled as a standard cycle because the Carnot cycle includes the
part, which is quite difficult to actualize due to the state change of the actual steam
cycle and various heat cycles [1].
Therefore, for the standard cycle of the actual steam prime mover, the following
cycles are mainly adopted.
G
Rankine cycle
G
Regenerative cycle
G
Reheat cycle
G
Reheat regenerative cycle.

2.2.1 Rankine cycle

The Rankine cycle is the most basic system for a steam prime mover in actual plants.
Fig. 2.2 shows a typical system configuration of the Rankine cycle.
To begin with, mechanical work is taken out by adiabatic expansion of the steam
in a steam turbine. The exhaust steam becomes water by means of saturated con-
densation with a coolant in the condenser. The condensed water is pressurized up to
the boiler pressure by the boiler feedwater pump. The boiler feedwater is then trans-
formed to superheated steam while passing through the economizer, evaporator,
and superheater in the boiler cycle [2].
Steam turbine cycles and cycle design optimization 13

Boiler
1
Super- Generator
heater
6
Evaporator
Turbine
2
5
Economizer
Condenser

4 Feedwater pump 3

Figure 2.2 System configuration of the Rankine cycle.

1
T

P1 T1
5

4
P2 T2
3 2

s
B A

Figure 2.3 T-s diagram of the Rankine cycle.

The condition of the fluid and the energy input and output at each part of the
Rankine cycle is shown on a T-s chart (Fig. 2.3) and an h-s chart (Fig. 2.4), where
T is absolute temperature, h is enthalpy, and s is entropy.
The following sequence shows the condition of the fluid at each point.
1: Superheated steam at the boiler superheater outlet (steam turbine inlet).
1
2: Adiabatic expansion in the steam turbine (ideal condition) from turbine inlet to tur-
bine outlet (the condenser inlet).
2: Wet steam at the steam turbine outlet (the condenser inlet).
14 Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants

h
6
H1

P1
2

5 P2
4
ALp
3

Figure 2.4 h-s diagram (Mollier diagram) of the Rankine cycle.

2
3: Condensing process in the condenser.

3: The condenser outlet (the boiler feed pump inlet).
3
4: Adiabatic pressure rising process to the boiler pressure in the boiler feedwater
pump.
4: Compressed water at the boiler feed pump outlet (the boiler inlet).
4
5: Heating process under constant pressure to saturate conditions in the boiler.
5: Point at the saturated condition of water in the boiler.
5
6: Evaporating process under constant pressure in the boiler evaporator.
6: Saturated steam at the boiler evaporator outlet (the super-heater inlet).
6
1: Heating process under constant pressure in the boiler superheater.

2.2.2 Theoretical thermal efficiency of the Rankine cycle

Heat capacity and effective work to be done per kilogram are described as follows
(Fig. 2.3):
The heating quantity in the boiler and in the superheater is shown below [3].

Q1 5 h1 2 h4 5 AreaB4561A

Heat discharge in the condenser: Q2 5 h3
h4 5 Area A23B

Effective work: AL 5 Q1
Q2 5 Area 1234561
Rankine cycle ideal efficiency: ηran 5 AL/Q1 5 Area 1234561/Area 4561 A

h1 2 h4 2 ðh2 2 h3 Þ h1 2 h4 2 ðh4 2 h3 Þ
ηran 5 5
h1 2 h4 h4 2 h3

where each variable is described as follows:

Adiabatic heat drop: h1
h2 5 H1
Shaft power of the boiler feedwater pump: Lp
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
aside, and only the most callous soul could remain unmoved by its
exquisite beauty. From the cloister there opens a chapter-house of
the same style and period, a perfect gem, although the entrance
arch leading to it shows signs, in the lace-like pendent ornament
that lines it, of the over-elaboration which finally led to decadence.
The chapter-house is thus described by Beckford with special
reference to what struck me most—namely, the exquisite groining,
springing like palm branches from clustered pillars in the wall, and all
centring in the apex of the roof:—“It is,” he said, “a square of
seventy feet, and the most strikingly beautiful apartment I ever
beheld. The graceful arching of the roof, unsupported by console or
column, is unequalled; it seems suspended by magic, indeed human
means failed twice in constructing this bold unembarrassed space.
Perseverance and the animating encouragement of the sovereign
founder at length conquered every difficulty, and the work remains
to this hour secure and perfect.”
Close by is the great refectory of the monks, now used as a sort of
lumber-room museum of débris; and leading from it the vast,
vaulted kitchen, its stone roof blackened still by the smoke of
centuries of cooking fires. The humble little ancient cloister of the
original monastery still remains, with its rows of cells in the upper
ambulatory. Here there is no Manueline exuberance or wealth, only
reverent pointed Gothic, grave groined roofs and arches unadorned,
enclosing, as of old, the sweet, quiet little garden that more than a
century ago aroused the admiration of Beckford.
 The Cloisters, Batalha.

From there the distance is but a few steps to the “unfinished

chapels”; but the contrast of feeling between the two places is wide
indeed. The chapels consist of a sort of Lady chapel or apse built out
at the back of the high altar, like Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster.
A large central chapel with ten smaller chapels round it rise to
perhaps half their intended height, and roofless, for when King
Manuel died in 1521 the work was stopped and has never been
resumed. The first view of this fragment, and particularly of the
great arch by which it was intended to connect it with the church,
strikes an observer with astonishment that human brains and hands
could ever compass such intricacy of design and execution.
Convolutions more tortuous than those of Arab art, floridness more
overloaded than Churriguerra ever dreamt of, boldness for which the
only just word is insolence, here run riot unrestrained, fatiguing the
eye, tiring the mind, and ending by palling upon the senses from
mere over-exuberance. The lower portion and pillars, and the
exterior of the chapels, are restrained and sober, and this makes the
more overwhelming the arches and the upper pillars designed to
support the roof. One feels that the design is that of a genius, but of
a genius whom another step would have led to madness, and who
threw aside all the accepted canons of his art. But, withal, though
Beckford avoids detailed notice of these chapels, it is impossible
even for the purist in architecture to pass such work by without
some admiration being mixed with his surprise. The great arch
leading into the church is the culminating point of the work; its
western side being a mass of intertwined foliage, knots, cables,
flowers, and concentric lines, cut in high relief in seven distinct
mouldings or orders, and the inner line of the arch is decorated with
a deep pendent open-work border; whilst forming part of the
intricate design of the whole arch, the enigmatical words “Tanias el
Rey” are repeated hundreds of times on small labels. What the
words mean nobody knows, though the most probable guess is that
they may be an anagram for “Arte e Linyas” (“art and lines,” in old
Portuguese).

“The Unfinished Chapels,”

Batalha
As I walked up the road leading from the hollow in which the abbey
stands, I looked back again and again at the perfect loveliness of the
building I was leaving behind. The flying buttresses, the lines upon
lines of fretwork edging, the multitude of floreated pinnacles, and
the glorious Gothic of the west front, all of the softened hue of old
gold, presented in my eyes the perfection of a Gothic building. I
have seen the stately grandeur of Amiens, the soaring pride of
Cologne, the vast magnificence of Burgos, and the fairy prettiness of
Milan, and I have worshipped at the shrines of Ely, Norwich, and
Lincoln. Each one in its way is supreme and incomparable; but
Batalha, reservedly nestling in its green hollow far from the busy
haunts of men, has a charm of its own that I have found in no other
Gothic church; and as I finally turned my back upon it, I carried with
me a memory which in my life will never fade.
We are soon amongst the pines and heather again, driving along an
elevated ridge with a valley and bold mountain ranges beyond upon
either side, the effect of the distant hills seen through the
perpendicular lines formed by the straight pine trunks that cluster on
each side being very beautiful. A sort of light-blue veil seems to
cover the far landscape, such an atmosphere as Corot loved to paint;
not a mist arising from dampness, but the azure tint of the air itself
seen by its clarity to a vast distance through the dark pine copses.
The first sign of systematic begging that I had experienced in
Portugal was at Batalha; groups of children, encouraged apparently
by the constant visitors to a show place, making a regular business
of cadging: for we were getting now into the centre of Portugal
where the people are less sturdy and the position of the peasant less
prosperous than in the north. Along the road from Batalha to
Alcobaça, a new and really charming form of begging was resorted
to by the children on the wayside—chubby, well-fed mites they
looked most of them, evidently not in abject want. They kneel on
the roadside in an attitude of prayer, their hands joined in
supplication, their eyes closed reverently and their expression rapt,
like little dirty angels. They have before them a few cut flowers, and
the moment the carriage passes them they start like a flash of
lightning from their devotions, and throw the flowers into the
stranger’s lap, whilst they begin to trot by the side of the vehicle in a
dogged, persistent way, not articulately asking for alms, but simply
trying to win a penny by reproachful glances and disregard of all
entreaties to them to stop their dog-trot and go away. Needless to
say, such tactics are usually successful, for only a very hard heart
could withhold the small coin they covet, when an angelic-looking
child of seven has panted half a mile barefooted by the side of a
carriage going at a brisk pace.
Half-way to Alcobaça the ridge upon which the road runs narrows to
a mere knife edge, and on the left hand a wide valley sweeps down
suddenly, a bold long hill rising beyond. This is the battlefield of
Aljubarrota, upon which John, the Master of Avis, won his crown,
and for the second time asserted the independence of Portugal from
Castile on the 14th August 1385. From Thomar he had brought all
the power that patriotic Portugal could raise, and upon this ridge
awaited the attack of the Castilians, who, if once they could pass it,
would have all the seacoast of Portugal at their mercy down almost
to the mouth of the Tagus. The position is not very dissimilar from
that of Bussaco, but upon a smaller scale. The Portuguese right and
left flanks were both defended by projecting spurs; upon one of
which the English bowmen were posted, and by standing upon the
centre of the position it is easy to see, even to-day, how skilfully
John the Great had chosen his ground for the decisive struggle, and
how difficult it was for the Castilians to succeed. They dared not
proceed along the valley leaving this strong force of enemies upon
the heights behind them, able to cut them off from their base, and
harass them flank and rear; whilst to swarm up these precipitous
slopes in the face of a semicircle of determined opponents, and
enfiladed by archers on both flanks, seemed inviting defeat. All was
against the Spaniards. A mysterious epidemic was prostrating them,
the King of Castile was ill, and had to be carried to the battle in a
litter, and, above all, the Portuguese were struggling for the
independence of their country, whilst the Spaniards were fighting at
the behest of a corrupt and unpopular king. So on that fateful
morning in August, five hundred and twenty-three years ago, as the
chivalry of Castile struggled up these broken slopes, the men upon
the ridge from which I look down now over the smiling plain, stood
like a steel wall, and with mace and battle-axe, and double-handed
swords, clove and smote them, whilst the cloth-yard arrows pierced
and bowled them over by hundreds ere they reached the summit.
The hearts of the Spaniards failed them, and down the slope they
fled, delivered now to carnage and to capture. Ten thousand of
them, the best fighting men in Castile, fell, the king barely escaped
by flight, whilst half his court were taken. Aljubarrota was won, the
house of Avis fixed upon the throne for two hundred years, and the
alliance between England and Portugal cemented so strongly as to
have lasted unbroken to this day.
Through the poverty-stricken looking village of Aljubarrota, where
some questionable relics of the battle are exhibited for a
consideration (though no one offers me wine, as they did to
Beckford’s princely cavalcade), a few miles more brings me to a
point, whence looking down on the right side of the ridge the town
of Alcobaça is seen below, surrounded by miles of vineyards,
touched now with bronze and crimson, for the vintage is nearly over,
and a big hummock of a building over all, that I know is the famous
Cistercian monastery, the sepulchre of so many princes of the
ancient royal house of Portugal that I have travelled thus far to see.
The church and monastery stand fronting a very extensive triangular
praça, crossed by long avenues of acacias, and the first sight of the
edifice is distinctly disappointing. An ordinary façade in the
seventeenth-century, Spanish “Jesuit” style of the time of Philip IV.,
with white walls and yellow stone outlines, and flanked on both sides
by monastery buildings of great extent in the same taste, or want of
it, did not quite fulfil the hopes which Beckford’s description of the
splendours of Alcobaça had aroused. It is true that the west door of
the church somewhat redeemed it, for it was evidently the remains
of the original front in pure unadorned Gothic. The whole edifice is
raised above the surface of the praça upon a platform some ten feet
high, and upon this parade the monks in old time were mustered to
receive distinguished visitors. Beckford thus describes the reception
of his own party—

ON THE PRAÇA AT ALCOBAÇA.

“The first sight of this regal monastery is very imposing, and the picturesque well-
wooded and well-watered village out of the quiet bosom of which it seems to rise
relieves the mind from the sense of oppression the huge domineering bulk of the
conventual buildings inspire. We had no sooner hove in sight, and we loomed
large, than a most tremendous ring of bells of extraordinary power announced our
speedy arrival. A broad hint from the Secretary of State recommending these
magnificent monks to receive the Grand Prior and his companions with peculiar
graciousness, the whole community, including fathers, friars and subordinates, at
least four hundred strong, were drawn up in grand spiritual array on the vast
platform before the monastery to bid us welcome. At their head the Abbot himself,
in his costume of High Almoner of Portugal, advanced to give us a cordial
embrace.”
All is quiet enough now, for the monks are gone these seventy
years, and the huge dilapidated edifice behind, forming a vast
square, is partly occupied as a barrack, and the rest falling into
ramshackle ruin. Nor is anything stirring in the prim little town,
which has grown up around the wealthy foundation, and now lives
placidly upon the produce of its vineyards.
The interior of the church presents a marked contrast to the façade.
The impression produced is one of ponderous solidity and
permanence, and the stern devotional character of all the
ecclesiastical buildings founded by the great Affonso Henriques, first
king of Portugal, in the twelfth century is again conspicuous, though
even here a cornice of gilt curly wood lines the fine chancel arch.
The nave though somewhat narrow is impressive and handsome,
separated from the aisles by square pillars of immense size, broader
than the spaces between them. From brackets or ledges at various
heights from the ground upon the front and sides of these pillars
spring the simple arches and groining of the roof, each pillar carrying
its arch right over the nave, so that each set of simple groins is
separated from the rest by the arch moulding. The aisles, very
narrow, seem overwhelmed by the immense square pillars, and it is
easy to understand in the face of this stern interior that the
notoriously luxurious and self-indulgent monks of Alcobaça did their
best to soften the austerity of their surroundings. That they did so to
some purpose is seen both by Beckford’s account of his visit and by
my Strathmore manuscript of 1760. The account given by Lord
Strathmore is worth transcribing:—
“The minister having ... ordered them to do us ye utmost honour they were
capable of, we found a large place before the convent so crowded with people that
it was necessary for a guard of militia which they had summoned to make a lane
for us up ye steps. At ye door we were reciev’d in form by ye guardian and first
people of ye fraternity with ye utmost ceremony, and conducted by ye light of
torches thro’ cloisters of Gothic arcades with ye whole college in procession to our
apartments.... Our rooms were extremely spacious, and were hung with crimson
damask and gold, ye floor cover’d with Persian carpets, and our beds in alcoves
deck’d with embroidered coverlids. We had a basin and ewer brought to wash
before supper, and on another salver a napkin of fine linen, curiously pinck’t and
strew’d with rose-leaves and orange-flowers. We then pas’t into the next room,
where we found a large table groaning under a service of monstrous dishes.”
The writer comments unfavourably upon all the eatables placed
before him, reeking, as they did, he says, of garlic, bad oil, and
other horrors, and he comments upon the tasteless lavishness of the
fare. He then continues:—
“At last, after having drank reciprocally all ye healths that we thought would be
required on either side, we retir’d to repose. The next morning we were no sooner
dres’t than we found ye whole college assembled in ye next room at our levee. We
breakfasted in state, at ye end of a long table with ye rest seated round ye room,
and admiring ye peculiar grace with which we put every morsel into our mouths.
After breakfast we were attended thro’ ye convent, and had everything explain’d
to us, which I must own gave me great pleasure. They are of ye Cistercian order,
and ye richest in Portugal, possessing a vast tract of land which is said to bring
them in £50,000 per annum. Their magnificence is in every way proportionable.
Their church is Gothic, but extremely noble, ye plate, jewels and ornaments,
copes, etc. are as rich as possible.... They have no taste or design in their
expenditure, and seem to study richness rather than elegance in all they do. As
they reign, so they entertain, like princes over the district. In the evening we saw
their great altar lighted up at vespers, which at the end of a long Gothic aisle had
a most striking effect with ye organ and voices altogether impressing upon the
mind most solemn awe.”
Remains of the tasteless splendour referred to are still to be seen on
all sides. The gilt-trimmed chancel arch, the high altar, with its blue
starred globe and wooden gilt rays in the centre, and popes carved
and gilt in niches each side, amidst gold whirligigs galore, are as
incongruous as can be with the stern, simple nave: and the altars of
the north transept and retro choir all present the same features,
some of them, moreover, being in a lamentable state of dilapidation,
inciting to derision rather than devotion. In the north transept, hard
by the thirteenth-century sepulchral stones of Affonso II. and
Affonso III., is a dark but beautiful Gothic hall, the holy of holies of
the monastery, “the chapel of the tombs,” the resting-place of
several of the earlier princes of the royal house.
 UNDER THE ACACIAS, ALCOBAÇA.

The most striking objects in it are two magnificent sarcophagi in

florid decorated Gothic. The recumbent figures of king and queen
upon them, as fair and perfect as the day they were sculptured, rest,
not hand in hand as upon most similar tombs, but foot to foot. For
these are the sepulchres of Pedro the Just and his murdered
mistress, Ines de Castro, done to death by servile nobles beside the
“fountain of love” in the “garden of tears” at Coimbra, and the
faithful king ordered the body of himself and his beloved to be laid
thus, so that when the universal trump should call him to arise, the
first object upon which his reopened eyes should rest would be her,
who, though unwed, was yet his wife through all eternity.
Kings, queens, and princes, whose names now mean little even in
the country where they held sway and nothing elsewhere, lie around
in tombs of varying magnificence, together with débris and relics of
times earlier than any of them. The usual dense ignorance is
displayed by the guardian of the objects he is supposed to describe;
for he points out two very small ancient sarcophagi, one of them
obviously Byzantine Romanesque, and the other probably pre-
Christian, and tells you gravely that they once contained the bodies
of Ines de Castro’s children. Both of them are centuries earlier than
her time, and her only children grew up and survived her. But this is
not more absurd than the representation, in the current English
“History of Portugal,” of a lady in the height of the Portuguese
fashion of the end of the seventeenth century as Ines de Castro,
who lived in the fourteenth.
The cloister of the monastery presents the characteristics of two
styles. The lower part is pure early Gothic, like the church and
chapter-house, with simple rose lights in each arch; but the upper
storey has evidently been added or rebuilt in the early sixteenth
century in good Manueline taste; and in one corner there is a very
beautiful fountain in the same style bearing the monogram of the
“Fortunate” monarch Manuel himself. The vast refectory, of which
Beckford spoke so sneeringly, as dirty and slovenly, is entered by a
handsome Manueline doorway, and is now being restored. The
entrance to the sacristy is also a fine specimen of Manueline, but
inside the bad taste of the late seventeenth-century monks is
rampant. All around the great square apartment are carved and gilt
niches, in which are dozens of life-sized busts also carved and gilt, of
saints and bishop, each of which has a hollow for a relic upon the
breast, all now despoiled of their contents; and the precious treasury
of jewels, ornaments, and embroidery that aroused the envious
admiration of the virtuoso Beckford, has all disappeared, many of
the most beautiful and precious objects being now in the Museum of
Fine Arts at Lisbon, a storehouse of mediæval goldsmith’s work
unsurpassed in Europe, though almost completely neglected both by
residents and visitors to the capital.
One more show chamber there is in the “national monument”
portion of Alcobaça: a hall lined with eighteenth-century pictorial
blue tiles, representing in large tableaux memorable deeds of the
kings of Portugal, with statues of the kings themselves upon
brackets above; the great tableau at the end, representing the
coronation of Affonso Henriques, being an exceptionally good
specimen of a poor artistic medium. As I walk through the grave,
silent church again, and so out into the bright praça, with its
avenues of shady acacias casting long shadows, the façade of the
church strikes me as more inharmonious than before, now that the
wonderful glow of the slanting sunrays touch the salient points with
fire. The front with its seventeenth-century figures, its Manueline
central round window, and its elaboration of outlines, so
characteristic of the Spanish “Jesuit” style, are utterly incongruous
with the pure early Gothic of the doorway, and it is with a sigh of
regret that one turns from the contemplation of such a result of
wealth divorced from artistry.
The vast monastic building behind the church is squalid and ugly, for
the occupation of soldiery does not tend to the æsthetic
maintenance of a building. The famous kitchen of the monastery is
used now for military purposes, but may be seen by easily obtained
permission. As I looked upon it, a bare, great, vaulted hall, with the
channel for water still running through it, and the marks of the long
line of ovens extending across the wall, I cast my thoughts back at
the busy scene that the place presented in the palmy days of the
monks, when the flesh-pots of Alcobaça were proverbial through the
land. This is how the place struck Beckford on his memorable visit.
“The three prelates lead the way to, I verily believe, the most distinguished temple
of gluttony in all Europe. What Glastonbury may have been in its palmy state I
cannot answer, but my eyes never beheld in any modern convent of France, Italy,
or Germany, such an enormous space dedicated to culinary purposes. Through the
centre of the immense and nobly groined hall, not less than sixty feet in diameter,
ran a brisk rivulet of the clearest water, flowing through pierced wooden
reservoirs, containing every sort and size of the finest river fish. On one side loads
of game and venison were heaped up, on the other vegetables and fruit in endless
variety. Beyond a long line of stoves extended a row of ovens, and close to them
hillocks of wheaten flour whiter than snow, rocks of sugar, jars of the purest oil,
and pastry in vast abundance, which a numerous tribe of lay brothers and their
attendants were rolling and puffing up into a hundred different shapes, singing all
the while as blithely as larks in a cornfield.”
Abbots and monks, lay brothers, and cooks have gone the way of all
flesh; and of the plethoric plenty of old no vestige remains in the
enormous dingy hall. So, there being no fatted calf killed for me in
these degenerate days, I wend my way through the acacia avenues
to the humble hostelry where a dinner is prepared for me, eatable, it
is true, but a sad falling off from the culinary splendours of Alcobaça
in the good old times.
Then in the gloaming I drove four miles through woods of pine and
eucalyptus, balsamic now in the soft evening air, to Vallado station
on the railway to Lisbon. Out of the darkness at about seven there
sprang a long spinning factory blazing with electric light, and
humming with the whirr of wheels. The “hands” were just flocking
out from their daily toil, and filled the black, unlit road with a gay
babbling crowd. There was no town near, and the mill was deeply
embosomed in the pine woods: this seemed to me an ideal form of
factory life, in which the house of toil, instead of debouching its
crowd of pallid workers into fetid town-slums to fester
unwholesomely until the morrow, needed but a step from its
threshold to plunge them into the sweet air of the pines and
heather; and where the “hands,” though they worked in crowds
underneath a roof, never ceased to be country folk. It was but a
passing flash and hubbub to me in the darkness of my lonely drive,
and the toilers to me, and I to them, but fleeting shadows. But seen
thus, there seemed to me something of suggestive possibilities in
this hive of what is usually an urban industry, set in the midst of
lofty pines, sweet mountain herbs, and far-flung folds of purple
heather. A railway journey of three-quarters of an hour brought me
to the famous medicinal thermal watering-place of Caldas da Rainha,
where in the excellent Hotel Lisbonense, which the proprietor, one of
those frugal, honest, Gallegos who are the industrial salt of the
Peninsula, told me was the largest in Portugal, as it is certainly one
of the best, I ended a long day of overcrowded impressions by a
night of delightful dreamless sleep.
 VII
CINTRA

I had often before seen Caldas in the height of the bathing season,
when the midsummer heat made Lisbon intolerable and inspired
people with more or less imaginary maladies to get cured. The place
then, with its crowds of visitors and pleasant parties, was bright and
lively enough; but now that the last pleasure-seeker had fled, and
the only people taking the wonderful health-giving waters were the
few really sick, and the inmates of the great “Queen’s hospital”
adjoining the hot springs, Caldas looked mean and ugly. The drives
through the pine forests in the neighbourhood, it is true, are
pleasant; but for a fortnight I had been passing through a glorious
pine country much more diversified and elevated than these, and
Caldas had no fresh attractions to offer me. A visit to the famous
factory of enamelled faience, charmingly situated in the midst of
gardens, yielded an hour’s interest in the inspection of the late
Bordallo Pinheiro’s fine sacred figure groups now in course of
production for the shrines at Bussaco, and the hundred curious
Palissy-like pieces in high relief, plates of fruit, fish, &c., which are
the specialty of the factory. But that being finished the charms of
Caldas were exhausted, so far as I was concerned, and the train for
Cintra claimed me irresistibly.
The first station from Caldas (Obidos), with its little town, nestles at
the foot of an eminence upon which another of the stupendous
mediæval castles peculiar to Portugal rears its massive battlements,
castles in comparison with which most of the English feudal
strongholds are mere sentry-boxes. For these Portuguese fortresses
were national outposts thrust forward successively into conquered or
debatable land; bases for further extension southward and bulwarks
against the return of the tide of Islam. Another two hours of
travelling brought us into a country of red rolling hills, with a bold
granite ridge on the east and a still loftier ridge beyond merging into
the blue mist on the horizon. For miles on either side grand sweeps
of flowering heather flushed against breaks and slides of ochre-
earth, touched here and there with the light feathery green of the
pines; whilst in the dips of hills sheltered valleys of bronzing vines
and little white granges, slept tranquilly after the bustle of the just
finished vintage. Soon we get nearer the granite hills before us, and
looming over the station, upon a great projecting spur of one of
these there frowns another of these tremendous strongholds, from
which, running towards the east and south between us and Lisbon,
there bars the way a series of gigantic ridges and peaks. Most of the
heights are capped by towers, and scored along the faces of the
mountains may still be discerned lines and marks of earthworks and
redoubts. These are the never-to-be-forgotten lines of Torres Vedras,
by which the genius of Wellington finally held the legions of
Napoleon at bay, and saved Portugal—and incidentally Europe—from
the domination of the French.
All the earth seems soaked and saturated in sunlight and brilliant
colour; little ancient towns, like Runa, perched on the tops of cliffs,
at the foot of which more modern hamlets cluster, testify to the
changed conditions between the days when the first need was safety
from aggression, and the later times when, the danger of wanton
attacking being past, men sought accessibility and ease. Acacias,
aloes, canes, olives, and vines spreading down the plain, tell of a
benign and equable climate enjoyed in security and peace; a
beautiful and favoured land, where nature has done its best to make
man happy without making him idle. As the twilight begins to fall we
change trains at Cacem, the junction of the small local line from
Lisbon to Cintra, and thenceforward we travel due west towards the
sea. Before us looms a great isolated mountain, the “Rock of
Lisbon,” which seafarers know so well, with its bold outline and its
gleaming towers on the topmost crag.
“And Cintra’s mountain greets them on the way.”

—Childe Harold, canto i.

The “mountain of the moon,” and of its goddess Cynthia, devoted

from the dawn of time to the worship of deities that, one by one,
have been deposed, this long-backed hummock, stretching nearly
fifteen miles from end to end and rising well-nigh two thousand feet
above the plain, is one of Europe’s acknowledged beauty spots, and,
like a human professional beauty, on this occasion coyly hid its
charms from too ready a discovery by cloaking its summit with a
cloud as black as ink, forerunner of the coming night. The gradient
of the line continues upward as we wind round the base of the hill,
and it is quite dark when the terminal station of Cintra is reached,
and after a long drive upward the quaint little English hostelry,
known to four generations of Britons, welcomes me to dinner and to
rest.
Like the similar mountain of Bussaco, the “Rock of Lisbon” is scored
by ravines and dells innumerable, sheltered valleys open to the soft
sea-breezes charged with grateful moisture; and from time
immemorial the luxuriance and variety of its vegetation have been
proverbial. At a time when Lisbon, only some fifteen miles away, is
sweltering and breathless within its south facing semicircle of hills,
the slopes of the mountain of Cintra are fresh and invigorating, and
some of its gardens are a veritable paradise all the year round. But
beautiful as it undoubtedly is, Cintra owes much of its fame to its
nearness and accessibility to the capital, and so far as English
celebrity is concerned, to the accident of several influential
Englishmen persistently singing its praises at a time when Lisbon
was a fashionable winter and health resort.
The village of Cintra lies in one of the folds of the great hill, at
perhaps a third of its height up the side: a little Swiss-looking
pleasure-town round an open praça, like a set scene upon a stage. A
few hotels and shops, a church, the inevitable big stone building at
the most conspicuous corner, with the heavily barred windows on
the level of the footpath, and the squalid prisoners begging and
bandying repartee with the passers-by: at one end of the praça, a
lovely ancient Manueline cross upon a palm-shaded mound, at the
base of which a picturesque group is usually lounging, and close by,
the courtyard of an old, old palace whose most conspicuous features
are two curious protruberances from the roof, looking like a cross
between Kentish oast-houses, and giant champagne bottles. This is
Cintra as seen from its central point, but over it all there towers that
which gives unique distinction to its otherwise somewhat trite, self-
conscious picturesqueness. Sheer aloft upon a precipice a thousand
feet and more above its roofs there stretch the mighty battlements
and massive keeps of a huge castle of fawn-coloured stone, a castle
so immense as to dwarf Thomar, Leiria, and even Obidos almost to
insignificance. Long lines of crenellated walls following the dips and
sinuosities of the crest of the peak appear to grow out of the mighty
rounded boulders; some of these great masses of rock seeming to
hang over perilously—as they must have done for thousands of
years—top-heavy and threatening.

THE OLD PALACE, CINTRA.

To climb such an eminence looks impracticable when seen from the
praça of the little town, and yet it is but a pleasant and easy walk up
the zigzag road round the projecting shoulder of the hill. As I start in
the early morning to ascend the two twin peaks, only one of which is
visible from the praça, the air is indescribably sweet with the
mingled freshness of the sea and the perfume of herbs and flowers.
The way winds upwards between the trim walls of villas embosomed
in gardens. Ampelopsis, blood-red now, long trails of wistaria and
starry clematis, and large fuchsia trees loaded with flower, hang over
the pathway everywhere, whilst masses of heliotrope clothe the
jutting gables and corners, and pervading all are the scent and sight
of oceans of flowers. Palms, planes, poplars, and firs shoot upward,
and around their straight bare trunks there clusters a tangle of figs,
laurels, mimosa, camellias, aloes, and cactus. On the outer side of
the road, as the villas are left behind, you may look over the dwarf-
wall down the tree-clad slopes into glens of deep shade, with here
and there a glimpse through the branches of a vast sunlight plain far
below, whilst on the inner side of the zigzag way, the mosses and
ferns, and the pendent greenery of the precipitous hillside, with an
occasional break into a deep ravine, exhibit at each turn and step
some new beauty of tint or atmosphere. Presently at a turn of the
road, after half-an-hour’s climb, you see right over head the bare
granite cliff covered with huge overhanging boulders, and on the
summit a long stretch of yellow battlements and a huddle of
enormous towers. The trees around us are mostly oaks now, and the
grey boulders are covered on their inner faces with ivy and lichens,
whilst clumps of purple crocuses star the grass by the wayside. The
sun is as hot as July in England, but the breeze is delightfully fresh
and pure, the sky of spotless azure, and the air so clear that the
ancient fortress, still far above us, is seen in all its detail as if we had
it near to us under a giant microscope.
Suddenly as I turned a corner there burst upon my view another and
a loftier peak than the one upon which stands the Moorish
stronghold that had hitherto been my objective. A crag so
inaccessible it looked, as to suggest that the imposing building upon
it with its lofty towers was the work of a magician. The royal palace
of the Penha is this, piled up rather than built upon a sheer
precipice.[2] Here upon the highest point of the rock of Lisbon was
King Manuel the Fortunate wont to linger for hours and days for
many months together, climbing up from his palace in the town
below, that he might gaze far out upon the Atlantic, watching and
praying for the return of Vasco da Gama from his voyage to India
round the African continent, the route that in two generations the
impetus of Prince Henry the Navigator had opened up. There was
but a tiny Jeronomite hermitage or penitentiary here in this savage
eyrie to shelter the anxious king,[3] and during his vigils he vowed
that if the great explorer came home successful he would build upon
the spot a worthy monastery of the Order in memory of the event.
The work must have been a prodigious one, for even now the place
is hardly accessible by carriages, and the quantity and the weight of
material necessarily brought from below was enormous. This
monastery like the rest, was disestablished and secularised by the
State in 1834, and King Ferdinand, the consort of the Queen of
Portugal, and a first cousin of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert,
bought the building for conversion into a royal palace, as it remains
to-day, and here he lived the latter years of his life with his second
wife, the ex-opera-dancer, the Countess of Edla. Ferdinand altered
his palace, in many cases with very doubtful taste, Moorish and
German baronial features being liberally grafted on to the Manueline
edifice, with the result that the whole building when seen closely is a
pretentious muddle, saved from contempt by some of its ancient
portions, and by its sublime situation.
The palace on the peak was soon lost to sight again on my climb
upward, and the path led direct to the outer donjon of the Moorish
stronghold opening upon a narrow path cut along the face of the
rock, and bordered on the outer side by a low stone wall. The view
down over the steep, rocky slope, with the town of Cintra far below,
and the plain limitless beyond, is very fine, and the walls that border
the path are clothed with mosses and ferns almost as lovely as those
of Bussaco. The fortress must have been impregnable by force; and
indeed was only gained at last from the Moors by treason, this very
gate having been bought by the Christians from an unfaithful
guardian. This narrow path cut on the face of the precipice is the
only practicable approach to the fortress, and leads soon to yet
another gate flanked by a strong tower built upon one vast, solid
boulder. The dells below are filled with billows of verdure; the face of
the rock on the inner side of the path is covered with creepers,
ferns, and flowers, whilst above them, high up in the dips near the
summit, great trees lean over, shading the way by which we come.
Yet another strong gate tower we pass through; and with a sudden
turn we are inside the fortress, on the right of us a ruined chapel,
once a mosque, and on the left a watch-tower, with, at its foot, a
monument upon which the cross is graven surmounting the
crescent, emblematical of the fate of the adjoining chapel.
To describe in detail this prodigious ruin would be impossible in any
reasonable space. The summit of the crag consists of two separate
peaks at some distance from each other, the higher one occupied by
the main keep, “the royal tower,” and long battlemented walls reach
from one point to the other, with bastions at intervals and massive
square keeps at the salient angles. On all sides within the great
enclosure formed by the battlements, covering the whole summit,
remains of towers and buildings of various sorts are scattered,
amidst the dense growth of trees and brushwood that have intruded
upon the space. The battlements, many of them built upon the
rounded boulders that border the precipice and following the contour
of the hill top, are strong and perfect still; and it needs but little
imagination to people them again with the turbaned and mailed
warriors, sheltered snugly behind them, watching for the advancing
hosts of the Christian king, certain that, so long as Islam was true to
itself, no force could take this stronghold of their race. The view over
the battlements on all sides is tremendous. Just below the walls a
Titanic scatter of boulders, varying in size from a few feet in
diameter to the bulk of a cathedral, and then the descending folds of
greenery, with the sunlit plains and clustering towns below; and
there on the west, seemingly almost at the foot, a long stretch of
breaker-strewn beach, and the blue line of the sea. The view on the
Cintra side is almost appalling, the drop from the battlements and
boulders to the town being almost sheer, and on the south-east a
great bay opens, and the mouth of the Tagus bounds the prospect.
As I gazed, entranced at this wonderful scene, surrounded by yet
sturdy relics of the war of civilisations eight centuries old; musing
upon the immutability of nature’s face in comparison with even the
most enduring works of man, I noticed a wire fixed on the face of
the Moorish battlement, and thence to a boulder, and so from point
to point, I know not whither—to the palace or the adjoining peak,
perhaps. A telegraph wire! A familiar object enough, but, as it
seemed to me, strangely out of harmony with the stern battlements
from which for centuries the sons of the prophet held back the
advance of Western civilisation.
The point upon which the Moorish stronghold stands is connected
with the higher site of the palace by a saddle-back dipping
considerably and then rising very precipitously. The vegetation on all
sides is marvellously luxuriant, and inside the well-kept gardens of
the royal domain flowers and plants, temperate and sub-tropical,
make the place a horticultural paradise. Through graceful Moorish
archways, bright with Alambresque decorations and azulejos, under
rocky tunnels and over mediæval drawbridges, all redolent of the
gimcrack taste of the forties, the upward way leads at length to the
little inner patio of the castle, and here, at last, some of the
Manueline monastery still remains. It is little enough, a window here
and a door there, and is almost swamped by modern Alambresque
and German baronial additions, but the ancient chapel in the patio is
a gem. The beautiful groined ceiling especially attracts attention, but
the pride of the place is the exquisite altar of translucent alabaster
or jasper and black marble in the purest style of the classical
Renaissance, dated 1532, a thank-offering of King John III. for the
birth of an heir. The many groups of figures in alabaster are
extremely beautiful, and as the whole structure turns upon a pivot
the perfection of the work can be seen in various lights. A
concession to the Portuguese Manueline taste of the time is made by
the pendent festoons on each side of the altar, which are formed of
two lengths of knotted and twisted cable in alabaster, a tour de force
of execution, though rigid purists may perhaps question their artistic
appropriateness.
The chapel is marred by the hard, bright German stained glass
inserted in the principal window by King Ferdinand; but the modern
Portuguese is very far from being critical in matters of art, and
though hundreds of people yearly toil up the mountain to venerate
the holy image of the Virgin of the Penha in this chapel, and the
lovely ivory figure of St. John in the sacristy, no one apparently
thinks of removing the flashing offence of the stained glass window
in favour of some subdued medium more appropriate to this
beautiful little church. A climb to the highest tower of the palace is
said to be rewarded by a magnificent view. I was content to take it
on trust, for I had already climbed high enough, and could hardly
hope to behold a more striking prospect than those I had enjoyed
from the castle battlements, and from the inner patio of the palace
itself, which is perhaps the most striking of them all.
As I retrace my steps down the long zigzags to Cintra again, and
ever and anon look up at the heights from which I have come, they
seem quite inaccessible. Equally, or more so, does the somewhat
lower, but even more precipitous eminence called the Cruz Alta, from
which the prospect is of surpassing extent over land and sea.
“Eis campinas que ao ceo seu canto elevam,
Aqui o espaço, alem a immensidade,”

“Behold the plains their psalms raise to the sea,

Here spread below in space, beyond immensity,”

as the Portuguese poem on the base of the cross proclaims.

Everywhere the flowers trail over the walls of villas, and the high
palms within rock softly in the heliotrope scented breeze. Very
beautiful it is; but the gardens belong to other people, and are
jealously closed by stone walls and iron gates. From above them, at
hundreds of points all over Cintra, you may command views of
gardens of tropical luxuriance; but without permission of the wealthy
owners you may not enter them. Cintra’s beauty is not free like the
sacred wood of Bussaco, where you may wander at your will through
purely sylvan scenery that not even Cintra can surpass. The
grandeur of the towering Moorish stronghold on its crest of grey
boulders is more imposing than anything Bussaco can show, and the
interior of some of the highly cultivated private gardens of Cintra are
as fine as any in Europe; but, so far as the enjoyment of the mere
traveller is concerned, I am inclined to agree with the opinion of
those who hold that Cintra’s fame is quite equal to its merits.
Beckford had very much to do with it. His friends the Marialvas were
amongst the first of the Portuguese aristocracy, and owed the large
palace of Seteaes, where Byron and some guide-books erroneously
say that the humiliating convention of Cintra was signed by the
victorious English generals. Beckford’s visits to them and to the court
at Cintra inspired him with an enthusiastic admiration for the place,
and his letters are full of references to its beauty. To the immensely
wealthy and eccentric young Englishman desires and their
accomplishment ever went hand in hand, and Beckford purchased a
picturesque valley and slopes of the mountain some two miles from
the town round the shoulder of the hill towards the west. Here he
built an eccentric house, partly in the Moorish style, and here he
displayed the virtuoso tastes and exotic luxury which afterwards
made Fonthill famous.[4]
All that money and skill could do was lavished upon the gardens in
the ravines and slopes of Monserrate; and long before Beckford died
the place became famous throughout Europe. Sir Francis Cook,
Viscount de Monserrate, to whom Monserrate belonged for many
years, greatly extended and improved the property, and his son, Sir
Frederick Cook, the present owner, has followed the same course of
munificent maintenance of this earthly paradise; with the result that
now the beauties of the glens at Monserrate are probably unequalled
in their own way. It was the middle of October when I visited the
gardens on this occasion, although I had seen it in all the glory of its
spring and summer splendour on other visits, and the luxuriance of
the vegetation showed as yet no signs of waning. Great magnolias,
daturas, and bougainvilliers were in full flower, with roses, clematis,
brilliant coleas, and immense quantities of heliotrope. Tree ferns,
aloes, agaves, and palms grew with a freedom in the open air that
not even the hot-houses of Kew could surpass, whilst the crimson
ampelopsis and golden-leaved maples presented gorgeous masses
of colour. Some of the sylvan views are perfectly charming; but after
all, one feels that one is simply an interloper seeing the showplace
on sufferance by payment of a shilling—which the owner gives to a
charity—and a sylvan scene, perhaps less lovely, but in which I could
roam at will, as at Bussaco, would have had greater attraction for
me.
Upon a peak opposite Monserrate, and belonging to the same owner,
stands a humble little monastery that once belonged to the
Franciscan-Capuchins. It is a quaint and curious place, the cloister, a
tiny one, being joined to a rock, out of which the cells are
excavated. These and the doors and ceilings of the cloister are lined
with cork bark for warmth and cosiness in this exposed position, and
for centuries the hermit-monks lived and prayed on this peak
overlooking almost as great a panorama as the Jeronomites on the
high crest of the Penha. Franciscans and Jeronomites are alike gone
now; but in this case at least the place has been saved from
desecration, and the little chapel is maintained with reverent care by
Sir Frederick Cook, to whom the place belongs. Byron and Southey,
too, did much for the fame of Cintra. In a room at Lawrence’s Hotel,
commanding a fine view of plain and sea, the former wrote a portion
of “Childe Harold,” and his references in verse to the beauty of the
place are numerous. Writing of the cork convent, Byron refers thus
to Honorius, a rigid ascetic who in a cave there lived long years in
self-imposed penance:—
“Deep in yon cave Honorius long did dwell,
In hope to merit heaven by making earth a hell.”

Volumes of poetry, indeed, have been in the aggregate written about

Cintra. Byron made it practically his first stage of “Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage,” and went in raptures over it:—
“Lo, Cintra’s glorious Eden intervenes
In variegated maze of mount and glen.
Ah, me! what hand can pencil guide or pen
To follow half on which the eye dilates,
Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken
Than those whereof such things the bard relates
Who to the awe-struck world unlocked Elysium’s gates—
The horrid crags by toppling convent crown’d,
The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep,
The mountain moss by scorching skies embrown’d,
The sunken glen whose sunless shrubs must weep,
The tender azure of the unruffled deep,
The orange tints that gild the greenest bough,
The torrents that from cliff to valley leap,
The vine on high, the willow branch below,
Mixed in one mighty scene with varied beauty glow.”

The poet, in one of his letters to his mother complaining of the dirt
and discomfort of Lisbon, says: “To make amends for the filthiness
of Lisbon and its still filthier inhabitants, the village of Cintra, about
fifteen miles from the capital, is perhaps in every respect the most
delightful in Europe. It contains beauties of every description,
natural and artificial; palaces and gardens rising in the midst of
rocks, cataracts, and precipices; convents on stupendous heights; a
distant view of the sea and the Tagus.... It unites in itself all the
wildness of the Western Highlands with the verdure of the south of
France.”
Robert Southey, too, calls Cintra “the most blessed spot in the
habitable globe,” and Beckford’s letters are crowded with eloquent
passages to the same effect. “The scenery,” he says, “is truly Elysian,
and exactly such as poets assign for the resort of happy spirits....
The mossy fragments of rock, grotesque pollards and rustic bridges
you meet with at every step, recall Savoy and Switzerland to the
imagination; but the exotic cast of the vegetation, the vivid green of
the citron, the golden fruitage of the orange, the blossoming myrtle,
and the rich fragrance of the turf, embroidered with the brightest
coloured and most aromatic flowers, allow me, without a violent
stretch of fancy, to believe myself in the garden of the Hesperides.”
The Portuguese poets have of course dwelt much upon the beauties
of Cintra, especially Almeida Garrett, the principal Portuguese poet
of modern times. One stanza by him is cut upon a slab erected on
one of his favourite walks in the village as a memorial, and the
following lines from it may be quoted:—
“Cintra, amena estancia,
Throno da vegetante primavera:
Quem te não ama, quem em teu regaço
Uma hora da vida lhe ha corrido,
Essa hora esquecerá?”

“Ah! Cintra, blest abode,

The throne of budding spring,
Who loves thee not: and who
Can e’er forget in life
An hour passed in thy lap?”

When the stronghold on the crest of the mountain was securely held
by the Moslem soldiery, before the great Affonso Henriques swept
southward with the Cross victorious, the Moorish kings of Lisbon
lived in silken ease below in their summer alcazar in the praça of
Cintra—a building this full of interest still, though injudicious or
inexperienced travellers have caused no little disappointment by
comparing it unjustifiably with the splendid Arab remains at Seville,
Granada, and Toledo. Truth to say, the palace at Cintra is no
Alhambra, and should not be approached with expectations of
anything of the sort. And yet the place is very quaint and charming
as you enter the courtyard from the praça, hard by the Manueline
cross with its spiral shaft. The front of the palace appears to be
purely Manueline, the elaborate window and door decoration,
consisting of twisted cables and intertwined branches, and even the
pillars, spouts, and gargoyles are all redolent of Portugal’s age of
heroic expansion and wealth under the “Fortunate” king.