Lisbon: A Guide to Portugal's City of Seven Hills

The Torre de Belém, with the 25th of April Bridge behind. (Photo: T meltzer, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Lisbon (Lisboa), the capital of Portugal, rises on seven hills where the wide mouth of the river Tagus (Tejo) meets the Atlantic. The city has 545,000 people and the Lisbon region about 3 million (2024). With its white limestone buildings, narrow alleys, mix of deep history and lively modern culture, and an unhurried charm, it draws visitors all year. Around it, Greater Lisbon offers the UNESCO World Heritage town of Sintra, the seaside resorts of Estoril and Cascais, and Almada, across the river, with its hilltop statue of Christ the King.

Understand

Lisbon is hilly, so getting around is exercise, and it is a city of contrasts: the broad avenues, grand squares and grid of the lower town give way to the steep, cramped, winding lanes of Alfama and Bairro Alto. It feels calmer than most European capitals, and its touts are milder. Two great bridges cross the Tagus: the 25th of April Bridge, built to the design of San Francisco's Bay Bridge in the color of the Golden Gate, and the Vasco da Gama Bridge, built for Expo '98.

Lisbon’s 24 parishes, grouped into the city’s six main areas. (Photo: Gazilion, derivative work by ויקיג'אנקי, CC0)

History

Legend says Odysseus founded Lisbon on his way home from Troy; historians think Phoenician settlers founded it around 1200 BC and called it Alis-Ubo, "safe harbour." It passed to Carthage and then Rome, as Olisipo, the main trading town of the province of Lusitania. Muslim forces took it in 711 and expanded the Castle of São Jorge; the Moorish past still shows in Alfama, the oldest surviving district. In 1147 a Crusader army helped King Afonso I retake the city, and after the Reconquista it became the capital.

The Castle of São Jorge above Alfama. (Photo: fulviusbsas, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Portugal's golden age began in the 15th century: Prince Henry the Navigator took Ceuta in 1415 and launched the age of discovery, and under Manuel I (1495–1521) Portuguese sailors rounded the Cape of Good Hope and Vasco da Gama reached India, breaking Venice's hold on the trade with the East. After young King Sebastião was lost in 1578 without an heir, Portugal entered a union with Spain in 1580.

On All Saints' Day, 1 November 1755, one of the most powerful earthquakes in history destroyed two-thirds of Lisbon; it broke windows as far away as London and may have killed up to 100,000 people in the area. It shook the optimism of the Enlightenment, prompting Voltaire's Poem on the Lisbon Disaster and Candide. The Marquis of Pombal rebuilt the lower town as an Enlightenment ideal: broad, straight streets on a grid, with buildings framed to resist earthquakes. This is the Baixa Pombalina.

The plan for rebuilding the lower town after the 1755 earthquake. (Photo: Eugénio dos Santos and Carlos Mardel, public domain)

In the 19th century the royal court moved to Rio de Janeiro (1808) and Brazil declared independence (1822). In 1908 King Carlos I and his heir were assassinated on the Praça do Comércio, and in 1910 a republic replaced the monarchy. General Carmona seized power in 1926 and appointed António de Oliveira Salazar, whose authoritarian Estado Novo reorganized the country while ignoring civil liberties; Portugal stayed neutral in the Second World War and was a founding member of NATO.

Weather

Lisbon has one of the mildest climates in Europe. Winter days, December to February, average over 15 °C, with nights around 9 °C, and snow and frost are almost unknown. Summer lasts about six months, May to October, with days around 25 °C. Being on the Atlantic, the weather is windy and changeable, so bring a jacket or umbrella outside summer.

Getting around

The rechargeable Navegante card works on the metro, trams, buses, suburban trains and most ferries. The metro is clean and fast; its red line starts at the airport, but no line reaches Belém, which is served by train from Cais do Sodré, tram 15E and buses. Of the 28 tram lines Lisbon was famous for, six remain, and tram 28E, climbing through Graça, Alfama, Baixa, Chiado and Bairro Alto, is a better tour than a sightseeing bus. The city's funiculars and the Santa Justa Lift have been national monuments since 2002; the Glória funicular was closed after a fatal derailment in September 2025.

A tram climbing the streets of Ribeira. (Photo: K. Kendall from Portland, OR, USA, CC BY 2.0)

The Santa Justa Lift. (Photo: Travelinho, CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see

• Alfama, on the hills east of the Baixa, came through the 1755 earthquake largely intact: steep old lanes, Lisbon Cathedral and the castle.
• Baixa, the rebuilt downtown grid, with the great riverside Praça do Comércio and the pedestrian Rua Augusta.
• Bairro Alto, the young, lively "upper district," with Chiado and its historic theaters, and the city's nightlife.
• Belém, to the west, with the Torre de Belém, the Monument to the Discoveries, the Jerónimos Monastery, and museums of the navy, modern art (Berardo) and royal coaches.
• Northern Lisbon, with Parque Eduardo VII, the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the zoo.
• Parque das Nações, the Expo '98 site, now a modern district with the Oceanarium and the Pavilion of Knowledge science center.

Lisbon Cathedral and Mouraria. (Photo: Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK, CC BY 2.0)

Parque das Nações. (Photo: Mathieu Kappler, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Do

Nightlife centers on Bairro Alto: start at a fado restaurant near Praça Camões and work uphill as the night goes on. The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos is a fine opera house, and Teatro de Revista, a satirical revue born in Lisbon, plays at Parque Mayer. In June the Festas dos Santos fill the streets with parades and fireworks, above all for Saint Anthony on 13 June. Football fans can see Benfica at the Estádio da Luz or Sporting at the Estádio José Alvalade.

Eat

Restaurants are mostly small, family-run and inexpensive. Look for the pratos do dia, dishes of the day, often posted by the door and usually cheaper and fresher than the rest of the menu. Bairro Alto and Chiado are full of traditional restaurants; the Baixa has most of the tourist traps. Try the pastéis de nata, custard tarts, at any pastry shop, and never ask a taxi driver to recommend a restaurant.

The Time Out Market in the Mercado da Ribeira. (Photo: Lucas £ € $ ¥, CC BY 2.0)

Sources

• "Lisbon" from Wikivoyage, by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changed: rewritten in hubnx's own words and condensed; listings, addresses, prices, opening hours and phone numbers left out; each photo under its own licence, credited in its caption. This page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.