Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal.

It is built on hills beside a wide river. The river flows into the big Atlantic Ocean nearby. Houses with orange roofs climb up the hills.

Lisbon is the capital and biggest city of Portugal, in the far southwest of Europe. It is the westernmost capital city in mainland Europe. It sits on the north bank of the Tagus River, about 13 kilometers from where the river reaches the Atlantic Ocean, and its natural harbor is one of the most beautiful in the world.

About 546,000 people lived in the city in 2021, and about 2.87 million in the wider Lisbon area. Lisbon is built in terraces up a range of low hills, so it is a city of steep streets, stairs, balconies and wonderful views.

Lisbon lies on the north bank of the Tagus (Tejo) estuary, about 13 km from the river's mouth on the Atlantic, and is the westernmost capital in continental Europe, as well as Portugal's chief port, largest city and commercial, political and tourist center. Britannica credits its historical prominence to its natural harbor, one of the most beautiful in the world. The city proper covers 85 km²; it had about 545,796 people in 2021 (INE census via Wikidata; Britannica gives 544,851) and its metropolitan area 2,871,133.

Once a remote outpost at what was thought to be the edge of the known world, Lisbon was the center of Portuguese exploration by the 15th century. Its terraces climb from the Tagus and the Mar de Palha toward the Sintra Mountains. Despite modernization, Britannica says, it keeps the air of a 19th-century city: fish vendors carrying baskets on their heads, trolley cars clanging by the quays and a port that still feels close to its city.

On the riverbank stands the Tower of Belém.

It looks like a small stone castle in the water. Nearby is a huge, lacy stone monastery. High on a hill, an old castle looks over the city.

At Belém, west of the center, the Tower of Belém was built from 1515 to 1521 to defend the city. Nearby, the Jerónimos Monastery was begun in 1502. Both are carved in the Manueline style, Portugal's own decorated style that celebrated the voyages of discovery, and together they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Monument to the Discoveries honors Portugal's explorers.

In the center, a marble staircase rises from the river to the huge Commerce Square. On the hill above Alfama, one of the oldest quarters, stands the Castle of St. George, which began as a Moorish fortress.

Manueline architecture, an extreme late Gothic decoration that celebrated the voyages of discovery and Portugal's sole contribution to European architecture according to Britannica, is best seen at Belém. The five-story Tower of Belém (1515–21) was built as a fort in the middle of the Tagus, which later changed course; it combines a Gothic interior with North African touches and Renaissance arches. The Jerónimos Monastery, begun in 1502 by Diogo de Boytac, took the rest of the century and four more architects. UNESCO inscribed both in 1983.

The official entrance to the city is a marble staircase from the water to the arcaded Commerce Square (Praça do Comércio), lined with 18th-century buildings and centered on Machado de Castro's equestrian statue of Joseph I. Above Alfama, on the hill where Lisbon was first settled, the Castle of St. George is Moorish in origin; it was named for England's patron saint in honor of an alliance of 1386. The Carmo Church, left roofless after 1755, is now an archaeological museum.

Lisbon has lots of steep hills.

People ride trams that clang up and down the streets. Some streets are so steep they turn into stairs! An iron elevator lifts people from one part of town to another.

Lisbon's hills make getting around an adventure. Some streets in the Bairro Alto are so steep that they end in stairs, cable cars or, in one case, an iron elevator, the Santa Justa Lift. Trolley cars clang along by the quays, and ferryboats cross the river.

The metro opened on December 29, 1959, and by 2016 had 4 lines and 56 stations. Two long bridges cross the Tagus: the 25th of April Bridge on the west side of the city and the Vasco da Gama Bridge, built for Expo '98, which was then the longest bridge in Europe.

Some Bairro Alto streets leading down to the Baixa are so steep that they end in stairs, cable cars or, in one case, an elevator: the iron Santa Justa Lift designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard. Trolley cars run by the quays, and the port mixes freighters, cruise liners and ferryboats with fragatas, crescent-shaped lighters with black hulls and pink sails.

The metro was begun in 1955 and opened on December 29, 1959, as a Y-shaped line; the Red (Oriente) Line opened in May 1998 for Expo '98, and by 2016 the network had 4 independent lines, 56 stations and 44.2 km, linked to suburban rail and to the river connections with the south bank. The 25th of April Bridge spans the straight, 3 km wide lower Tagus; the six-lane Vasco da Gama Bridge, then Europe's longest, crosses the widest part of the estuary to relieve it.