Cristo Rei

Landmark · AlmadaLisbon,Portugal

A twenty-eight-metre statue on an eighty-two-metre portico across the Tagus from Lisbon, raised on a wartime vow that Portugal would be spared.

Cristo Rei stands on the Almada cliff on the south bank, facing Lisbon across the river. The statue is twenty-eight metres tall and sits on a portico of eighty-two metres, so the platform under its feet is eighty-two metres above the clifftop and far higher above the water. From that deck the whole city is laid out across the river: the hills, the bridge, the estuary opening east, and Lisbon small enough to take in at once. In April 1940, with Europe at war, the Portuguese bishops made a vow at Fátima: if the country were spared, they would raise a monument to Christ over Lisbon. Portugal stayed neutral, the salazarist state dealt with the Allies and with Germany by turns, the port filled with refugees waiting for papers and passage, and the Church stood beside the regime throughout. The monument was only finished long afterwards: Francisco Franco carved the figure, António Lino designed the base, and it was inaugurated on 17 May 1959. Seven years later the bridge opened alongside it.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Take the ferry rather than driving — Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas is about ten minutes on the water, and the crossing itself gives you the city from the river before you climb.
Sunset brings the longest queue — the lift backs up badly in the last hour of light, and the view is into the sun all afternoon, so morning is clearer and emptier.
Only the terrace at the statue's feet is ticketed — the precinct, the chapel and the lower viewpoint cost nothing, and a spiral staircase of seventy-four steps finishes the climb after the lift.
It is exposed up there — the platform is open on all sides on a clifftop above the estuary, and the wind is far stronger than on the Lisbon bank.

Things to do

1
Cross by ferry and look back
Take the boat from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas and stand outside on the deck. Lisbon rises behind you as you go, hill by hill, with the bridge overhead and the statue on the cliff ahead. Ten minutes on the water shows the shape of the city better than an hour at any viewpoint.
2
Stand under the statue and see the whole city at once
Ride the lift to the deck at the base of the figure. From here the whole of Lisbon is across the water at once: the castle hill, the bridge and the estuary opening east. Viewpoints inside the city show one district at a time, while this one shows all of it from outside.