Avenida da Liberdade

Street · Avenida da Liberdade (Santo António)Lisbon,Portugal

Eleven hundred metres of Lisbon boulevard built over a walled garden that turned away anyone in a workman's jacket, now the city's luxury address.

Avenida da Liberdade is eleven hundred metres of boulevard, ninety metres wide, and it was built on top of a garden that most of Lisbon was not allowed to enter. The Passeio Público was laid out in 1764 behind a wall and remade as a public garden in 1838. Its rules barred the drunk, the sick, children on their own, men carrying loads on their backs and, in those exact words, men in a workman's jacket. Anyone not decently dressed was turned away. Eight hundred and twenty-two trees were lifted out of the ground when the garden went, and the planes that shade the avenue now went in with the boulevard. Ten lanes of traffic run down the middle, but the two outer strips are paved in black and white limestone and carry most of the walking. The shops along them are the city's luxury addresses, and the theatres and hotels between them keep the avenue in use after the shops close. On the night of 12 June the traffic stops altogether and the whole length becomes a parade ground.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Walk it downhill, from Marquês de Pombal to Restauradores — the avenue drops the whole way, so going down means the Baixa and the castle stay open in front of you.
12 June is the one night — the marchas populares, twenty neighbourhood parades in costume, come down the avenue from nine in the evening, and the road closes to traffic from six.
The best single view is from above, at the top — From the lawns at the head of the avenue the whole eleven hundred metres lines up with the old city and the castle behind it.
Go early — This is a ten-lane road as well as a promenade, and measured pollution here runs above national limits, so the mornings are both quieter and cleaner.

Things to do

1
Find the two stone rivers left from the garden
Look low down in the central strip rather than at eye level: two carved figures lying on rockwork, half buried in ferns and ivy, with water running past them. They are on the shaded side, away from the traffic. Almost everyone walks straight past them.
2
Follow the water down the middle
Behind the iron railings of the central strip there is a chain of narrow channels, pools and small cascades running downhill with the slope. Walk inside the railings rather than along the shop windows. It is quieter, it is shaded by plane trees, and it is the only stretch of the avenue that still feels like the garden the avenue was built over.
3
Read the pavement instead of the shops
The whole length is laid in black and white limestone cobbles, cut into patterns that change from block to block. Look down as you walk and you will pass waves, medallions and knots, all of it maintained by hand. Portuguese cities pave their streets this way, and this avenue is where Lisbon puts the craft on display.