The top 5 things to do in Lisbon
There are plenty of attractions in the Portuguese capital but these are the unmissable ones.
There are plenty of attractions in the Portugese capital but these are the unmissable ones.
1. Jeronimos Monastery
Jeronimos Monastery is an enormous 500-year-old confection of archways, loggia, chapels and, no doubt, secret passageways, all rendered in late Gothic stonework. While built facing the Tagus River, the two-storey cloister looks inwards to a vast central quadrangle, with the whole filigreed domain suggesting Game of Thrones meets The Inquisition. Viewed as a masterpiece of Manueline architecture, the monastery was constructed during the 16th and 17th centuries, and in 1983 was awarded World Heritage status. The huge Church of Santa Maria, part of the complex, is stylistically distinct from the rest, and notable for its superbly sculpted columns. Navigator Vasco da Gama is entombed here, honoured as the seagoing astronaut who sailed off the edge of the world, so to speak, in 1498 to find for Portugal a sea-route to India and a fast-track to spices, wealth and empire.
2. Take the tram
Trams, aka electricos, still rumble through the streets of Lisbon. Among them are vintage, rattletrap streetcars such as the old 28E, and less antique models on other routes. Because so many tourists now sample (if only once) the famous 28 on its rock and roll route through Alfama, the queues can be monumental and the on-board crush almost intolerable. While your novelty ride shudders and squeals its way through streets sometimes not much wider than three umbrellas, spare a thought for the locals who endure daily this sardine-like ordeal. Lisbon’s other transports of delight include several funiculars (now national monuments) that climb streets too steep for conventional trams. The 1885 Elevador da Gloria – the name suggests a chairway to heaven – climbs from Restauradores Square to Bairro Alto and nearby Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara. Step aboard the curiously raked, yellow tramcar and pay the driver. But don’t settle in. The 275m ride takes just three minutes.
3. Head to the fortress Castelo de Sao Jorge
Alfama, the heart of ancient Lisbon, is crowned by the grand medieval pile of Castelo de Sao Jorge, a fortress that dates back to the 11th century. Now World Heritage-listed, its classic battlements, built on the bones of an even earlier Moorish keep, deliver panoramic views across Alfama, the city and Tagus River. Stand there and imagine the flimsy caravels of explorers such as Bartolomeu Dias or Vasco da Gama setting out for glory, or never to return. The hilly streets of Alfama, the city’s oldest neighbourhood (its name derives from the Moorish term for “hot baths”), tumble from the castle down towards the river. En route they become labyrinths of cobblestoned ways intersected by clattering tram routes and then open-out to sunny viewpoint terraces called miradouros. Among Alfama’s numerous holy spires is the Romanesque belltower of the 13th-century Se de Lisboa (Lisbon Cathedral), the city’s oldest church.
4. Check out the art galleries
Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in suburban Lisbon houses about 6000 pieces of exquisite art collected in the first half of the 20th century by British-Armenian oil entrepreneur Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955). Catch the subway out to Sao Sebastiao and treat yourself to at least a couple of hours amid this cornucopia of world art, plus the exceptional Gulbenkian Gardens that surround the museum. The themed collections, in a progression of galleries that are simultaneously opulent and intimate, range across Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian, Islamic, East Asian and Western art. Wandering in the latter, for instance, you’ll find Rembrandt, Durer, Frans Hals, Turner, Rodin, Renoir and more, as well as Lalique glassware and Faberge eggs. The uncommonly good taste of its uncommonly wealthy founder (and his advisers) means the Gulbenkian is not some mismatched pot pourri of a mogul’s trophies, but a thrilling immersion in world art history.
5. Visit the public squares
The city’s broad avenues and narrow streets sooner or later lead you to a praca, or plaza. Keep walking and you’ll arrive at another one, and then another. None of these public squares is the same as the next, each one being distinguished by the unique black and white mosaics of its paving, known as calcada portuguesa, or “Portuguese pavement”. Some patterns are reminiscent of once-hip, 1960s Op Art, which they predate by a century. The most famous plaza is Rossio, nick-named Rolling Motion Square, due to the parallel sine waves that pulse across it in a heaving, Art Nouveau arabesque. Meanwhile, the most grandiose civic square is Praca de Comercio, a vast ceremonial quadrangle facing the Tagus River. A short stroll from it is the smaller but more elaborately paved Praca do Municipio. Sadly, when these heroic arenas are rendered into English as plain, mundane “Commercial Square” and “Municipal Square”, much romance seems lost in translation.
John Borthwick was a guest of AlmaLusa Alfama and Windstar Cruises.
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