Lisbon - World's Leading City Destination 2018

Lisbon is the stunning capital city of Portugal, and voted the World's Leading City Destination and the World's Leading City Break Destination for the World Travel Awards 2018. It certainly has a lot to see and do and we certainly saw and did!

We drove in from Evora and dropped the rental car off in the morning leaving us nearly the entire day to spend exploring this ancient capital. As is our habit, we signed up for a walking tour for the afternoon and evening and set off on the 20-minute walk to where the tour started. The tour met and started at the Praça Dom Pedro IV, which Lisboans feel is the main central square of Lisbon and the true heart of the city.  Praça Dom Pedro is often referred simply to its much older name of Rossio which is also where we had caught the train to Sintra on our first day in Portugal.

Rossio was founded during the 13th century as the large central square of Lisbon. Here public shows, bull fights, and royal proclamations occurred. During the Inquisitions, Rossio was the public executions ground, and also the site of Lisbon’s original hospital the “Hospital Real de Todos os Santos” built in 1492 (when Columbus sailed the Ocean blue).

According to the Lisbon tourism site, "Lisbon revolves around Rossio, it is here that the students come to sing, workers to protest and tourists to drink overpriced coffee".  And when we arrived to start our tour, there was certainly a large protest happening. Apparently there was some kind of large civic protest happening ahead of the upcoming elections.  Protests in Lisbon involve a lot of marching, drums, horns, and noise.

After trying to hear about the history of the square over the noise of the protesters, we moved to the next stop in the tour. "Ferreira Marques Filhos, Joalheiros" is a jewelery store founded in 1925 and known for its art deco storefront.  It is also known as the James Bond store, where in the 1969 film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” James Bond (George Lazenby, in his only 007 appearance) bought an engagement ring there for his fiancée (Diana Rigg).

We spent 3 hours or so walking through the streets of Lisbon with our fascinating guide Ines.  We visited the Santa Justa Lift, also called Carmo Lift, which is an elevator which connects the lower streets of the Baixa with the higher Largo do Carmo.  Out guide showed us a way to walk to the top and enter the viewing platform at the top of the lift without having to pay the 5 euros 'the tourists pay'.

From the platform, we had gorgeous views of the city to the sea.  The lift is located right next to the ruins of Carmo Convent, which was founded in 1389 and mostly ruined in the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake.  Today the convent is an archaeological museum which we fully intended to visit after the tour was over.

Next to the Convent is a square called the "Largo do Carmo". This square is famous as the location where the Carnation Revolution , also known as the 25 April, initially started. Its name arose from the fact that almost no shots were fired, and Celeste Caeiro offered carnations to the soldiers when the population took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship; other demonstrators followed suit, and carnations were placed in the muzzles of guns and on the soldiers' uniforms. In Portugal, 25 April is a national holiday which commemorates the revolution.

We passed by an old Freemason lodge which is now a museum and restaurant. You can tell it was a lodge by the masonic symbols still visible on it.

The Igreja de São Roque (Church of Saint Roch) is a Roman Catholic church in Lisbon, Portugal. It was the earliest Jesuit church in the Portuguese world, and one of the first Jesuit churches anywhere. The edifice served as the Society’s home church in Portugal for over 200 years, before the Jesuits were expelled from that country. After the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the church and its ancillary residence were given to the Lisbon Holy House of Mercy to replace their church and headquarters which had been destroyed. It remains a part of the Holy House of Mercy today, one of its many heritage buildings.

Lisbon is built on hills and has many steep and winding streets. Many are too narrow and steep for typical metro buses so in the late 1800s, Lisbon began building trams and funiculars. The Glória funicular was opened in 1885 and in February 2002 it was classified as a national monument. It was the second of its kind in Lisbon, thanks to the initiative of the New Lisbon Mechanical Lift Company (Nova Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa – N.C.A.M.L.).

Fado is the haunting music that wafts out from the small bars of the Bairro Alto and Alfama districts of Lisbon. Fado comprises of a mournful sounding solo singer accompanied by a classical Portuguese guitar. No visit to Lisbon is complete without experience this traditional and emotional style of music.  We stopped at the "A Tasca do Chico" which has been open since 1993 for both professional and amateur Fado singers.  The outside of the restaurant is lined with decorative tiles showing the owner with many famous Fado singers.

We also made a quick stop at Bertrand Bookshop. Livraria Bertrand is the oldest operating bookstore in the world, founded in 1732 in Lisbon, Portugal. The original bookstore in Lisbon's Chiado neighborhood was declared by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest, operating bookstore in the world in 2016.

After the tour ended, we decided to head towards the Praça do Comércio.  The square is still commonly known as Terreiro do Paço because it was the location of the Paços da Ribeira (Royal Ribeira Palace) until it was destroyed by the great 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Today it is lined with shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants. It is fronted by Verissimo da Costa’s triumphal Arco da Rua Augusta - a magnificent arch topped with statues of famous Portugese dignitaries and explorers.

The center of the square is dominated by a large  equestrian statue of Dom José I. The statue is the first cast bronze statue in Portugal and is the oldest public statue of Lisbon and the country. At the base is a sculpture of Fame, driving an elephant (representing the Asia) over a human figure (representing Africa) which represents the submitting of continents to the Portugese empire.

It was getting dark and time to head back to the room since we had a flight to catch the next day.  On the way back we decided to walk up to the São Jorge Castle (Saint George Castle) which sits on the highest hill in Lisbon overlooking the historic center.  There have been fortifications one this hill since at least the 1st century BC with later expansions and enhancements over the centuries.  Unfortunately, we arrived too late to get into the castle but the walk up to the castle and back down through the narrow cobble-stoned streets was well worth the walk.