Lisbon
The city the earthquake redesigned
Lisbon was destroyed on a single morning in 1755, and the centre you walk through is what replaced it. An earthquake, then a wave up the Tagus, then three days of fire took out the lower city. The king's minister cleared what was left and rebuilt it as a grid of standard blocks braced with timber cages meant to survive the next one. Around that rectangle the older city held on across its hills — Alfama's lanes, the castle, the viewpoints — so two Lisbons now sit against each other, one drawn with a ruler and one that simply grew.
Phoenicians and Greeks traded on this estuary, Rome made it a municipium called Olisipo, and from 711 the city spent four centuries under Muslim rule — long enough to name Alfama and leave the street plan that still runs over the castle hill. A siege of nearly four months in 1147 ended with the city taken by Afonso Henriques and a northern crusader fleet; the surrender terms were broken and the city was sacked. The wealth came later and came from the sea: from 1498 Portuguese ships reached India and then Brazil, and the spice, sugar and gold that returned paid for the monastery at Belém. That commerce was administered from Lisbon through the Casa da Índia, which also licensed and taxed a crown-run trade in enslaved people. The earthquake of 1 November 1755 ended the old city in a morning. A republic was declared in 1910, and from 1933 the country lived under the Estado Novo until a military coup ended it on 25 April 1974; four people were shot by the political police that day and there was otherwise little fighting. Portugal joined the European Community in 1986.
Two days cover Belém, the Baixa and one hill. Four let you walk Alfama and Graça without a plan, sit through a fado evening, and cross the river or go out to Sintra.
Feel the city
The intangible side — what you remember after
Top experiences
If you do nothing else, do these — in order
- 4
Ride tram 28 from the first stopWooden trams from the 1930s still run this line because nothing modern fits the gradients and the hairpins. From the terminus you get a seat and a window; boarding halfway means standing in a crush. - 14
Eat across the whole city under one roofThe 1890s iron market hall at Cais do Sodré, where a food magazine's editors picked the stalls in 2014. The old fruit and fish market still trades in the other half of the building in the morning.
Places
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Historic & landmarks 7
Mosques & churches 2
Streets & nightlife 1
Viewpoints & parks 2
Local quarters 2
Beyond the city
Sintra's wooded hills, the Atlantic surf beaches and the far bank of the Tagus all sit under an hour from the centre.
Know before you go
The practical side
March to June and September to October are the best of it — warm, clear, long light. July and August are hot and the centre runs at capacity. Winter is mild and wet in bursts, and it is when a fado room is not full of visitors.
Bom dia on the way into a shop, and Portuguese is not Spanish; the assumption grates. In a fado house you stop talking when the singing starts — it is not background music, and the room will let you know. Tipping means rounding up.
Lisbon is a safe city and the one real nuisance is pickpocketing, concentrated on tram 28 and in the crowded lower town. The other thing worth knowing is the couvert: bread, olives and cheese arrive unasked and are charged for, and sending them back is normal.
The euro. Cards work almost everywhere, though small tascas and market stalls still prefer cash and a few take nothing else. The hills are the real cost of a day here, which is why the funiculars and street lifts exist at all.