The streets of Lisbon offer a great workout for the exploring traveler.
For those wishing to rest their legs, funiculars are available.
Ruia Agusta is one of many pedestrian streets in the centre of the Baixa. 
Blue ceramic tiles depict the recapture of Lisbon from the Moors in 1147.
Lisbon's Museo do Chiado houses the works of Portugal's modern masters. 
Rooftops of Lisbon's Moorish Alfama district wind their way in a maze of narrow streets.
The organic homes of Barrio Alto weather with time.
Many older buildings in Lisbon's Barrio Alto (Upper Town) are covered in tiles instead of
paint.
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EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNAL August
6, 1999
Lisbon
According to legend Lisbon was built on seven hills, including the city’s grand
Enlightenment-era centre, the Tagus River valley district of Baixa. Lisbon lies 17
kilometres from the Atlantic on the north bank of the Tagus, which opens out into the
7km-wide Mar de Pahla (the "sea of straw"). To the west of the city the estuary
narrows to a 3km sheltered natural harbour. This setting makes Lisbon among the
world’s most beautifully situated cities. At the end of the 15th century
Lisbon reached its apex of importance when Portuguese navigators pioneered explorations of
Asia, Africa and South America. In 1497 Vasco de Gama found the sea-route to India, and
Henry the Navigator built his new Caravel vessels for efficient seaworthy Atlantic
voyages. It was at this time – the "Age of Discovery" – that Lisbon
was the centre of the world’s richest and farthest-reaching empire. Lisbon developed
into a beautiful, ornate city of magnificent squares, palaces, churches and boulevards. A
devastating earthquake on All Saint’s Day, November 1st, 1755 killed
60,000 people, or close to one-fifth of the city’s population, reducing two-thirds of
the city to rubble, including caving in the roof of the city’s 14th
century Gothic Igreja do Carmo. The earthquake is said to have caused candles to
flicker as far away as Ireland. In 1898 the city built the appealing Santa Justa elevator
to carry citizens from the lower district of Baixa to the posh, upper Barrio Alto. From a
terrace and walkway at the top one can walk over the Carmo cathedral and take in the
blackened, burned out and toppled Gothic arches.
During World War II Portugal remained neutral and Lisbon became a rendez-vous spot for
spies making use of the city’s strategic Atlantic connections. In 1974 Mozambique and
Angola won independence from Portuguese rule and an influx of hundreds of thousands of
refugees converged on the city. Immigration and reactionary liberalism in response to the
demise of the 20th century dictatorship of Antonio Salazar have combined to
give Lisbon a cosmopolitan air, with Portuguese of African, South American, Asian and
European decent mixing freely on the streets of the city. |
Atlantic storm clouds gather over Lisbon.
Lisbon's architecture relfect its Age of Discovery heyday.
Inside the archway along Ruia Agusta at Praca do Comercio.
Christians storm the 6th century Moorish fortress where Castello Sao Jorge now stands.
The courtyard of the Castelo de Sao Jorge looks out towards the Tagus river and estuary.
From the Castle Lisbon's houses look as though they are made of Plastercine.
A conversation between windows in the Barrio Alto.
A Smart car occupies little space at the end of the street.
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