Mãe d'Água das Amoreiras Reservoir

Historic · AmoreirasLisbon,Portugal

The stone chamber where Lisbon's aqueduct water sat before the fountains, its vaults doubled in black water crossed by a walkway.

The Mãe d'Água is one stone room with a pool of black water in it. Vaults carried on four columns stand over the surface, and the water is so still that they are reflected whole. A walkway crosses the middle of it, so you stand out over the water rather than beside it. At the end wall is the spout the aqueduct emptied through, dropping water into the chamber from above. The water arrived by aqueduct from the hills, and this room was the last place it sat before the city's fountains. Carlos Mardel drew the building in 1745 and it was finished in 1834. The city now runs it as part of its water museum and lends the room for exhibitions and concerts, so there is usually something installed over the water. Stairs go up to the roof, which is flat and walkable, and looks over the square and the district behind it.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Closed Sundays and Mondays — it keeps museum days rather than tourist days, and it is a long walk uphill to find a shut door on the wrong afternoon.
Find the spout in the end wall — that is where the aqueduct's water arrived and fell into the chamber, and it explains what the whole building is for in one look.
Stop on the walkway and listen — the water absorbs the echo, so a stone chamber this size is unnaturally quiet and people instinctively lower their voices in it.
Go up to the roof before you leave — it is included in the ticket, flat and walkable, and it gives you the square from above and the district behind it.
Check what is installed — the chamber is used for exhibitions and concerts, so the installation changes several times a year while the reservoir itself stays the same.

Things to do

1
Stand over the water and find where it arrived
Go down to the chamber and out onto the walkway that crosses it. Black water lies still a few metres below you, the vaults are reflected in it, and the room is silent because the surface absorbs the echo. Then look at the end wall for the stone spout. That is where the water came in, after crossing the valley on the aqueduct's arches, and once you have seen it the aqueduct outside reads as plumbing rather than scenery.
2
Go up onto the roof
Take the stairs to the flat terrace on top. You are standing on the lid of the reservoir, looking over the square with its mulberry trees and across the rooftops of the district. Most visitors leave without going up, so it is usually empty.