PRACA DO COMERCIO »»»» LISBON CITY HALL

                                         

A - RIBEIRA DAS NAUS

It was at this point, Ribeira das Naus, which was the largest shipyard of the Portuguese Empire. Here were built the caravels. Caravels that discovered Brazil (Cabral) and the sea route to India (Vasco da Gama), Angola, Mozambique, Timor, Cabo Verde, Guinea, etc...

B - CAIS DAS COLUNAS

One of the most romantic places in Lisbon. You can sit on their marble steps and listen to the waves of the river Tagus.
Place of arrival and departure for other lands, other discoveries. When Portugal was a maritime empire, fleets of up to 500 vessels departed or arrived at the same time or each turn, the port of Lisbon.
In this place, began their visit to Lisbon, the presidents of different countries, emperors (Japan), Kings, and Queens (Queen Elizabeth of England in 1957).

1 -COLUNAS 

 C -PRACA DO COMERCIO (TERREIRO DO PAÇO)

With 36,000 square meters, is the largest square in Europe. The place is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. With several terraces and restaurants, you can enjoy the sun in Lisbon. The place is, throughout the day, bathed by the sun. You can admire the sunset, if you are sitting on the steps of the "Cais das Colunas", listening to the gentle waves of the river Tagus.

This site hosts the Royal Palace for four centuries hence the name under which it is still referred to Terreiro do Paço (terrace of the palace). It is in 1511 that King Manuel I abandoned the Castelo de São Jorge to settle on the banks of the Tagus.
Like the rest of the "lower city" ( Baixa Pombalina), the former site of the palace is not immune to the reconstruction after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 that destroyed the palace.

2 - EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF KING D. JOSÉ"  

This  gigantic car was built
  to carry the statue.
  He was shot by a thousand men because
  the greatness of the king would not allow
  the car could be pulled by horses.
  The car is in the Museu Militar

3   RUA AUGUSTA ARC

Both Lisbon’s residents and visitors may now visit the Augusta Street Arch, recently rehabilitated and granting access to a belvedere which allows for a unique view of the city.
The new belvedere is accessible by a lift whose entrance is located on Augusta Street.
During the opening ceremony, the Mayor of Lisbon visited the monument with the company of Mr. Mario Machado, from Tourism of Lisbon, and Mr. Jose Blanco, from World Monuments Fund Portugal.
To celebrate such an event a Multimedia Show created by Nuno Maya and Carole Purnelle and projected upon the Monument itself will take place daily, until August 18th, at 9.30 pm, at 10.30 pm, and 11.30 pm.
The monument will be open to the public on a daily schedule from 9am through 7pm, with the entrance costing €2.5 per person, with free entrance for children under the age of 5.

4 - The regicide (1908)

In 1908, the Praça do Comércio was the scene of the assassination of King Carlos and his son Luis Filipe.

BEFORE THE REGICIDE

 Royal carriage with the marks of bullets that killed the king and the crown prince. This carriage is part of the "Museu dos Coches" in Belém. 

THE EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI OF LISBON IN 1755 

Lisbon before the earthquake of 1755

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, occurred in the Kingdom of Portugal on Saturday, 1 November 1755, the holiday of All Saints' Day, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with subsequent fires and a tsunami, the earthquake almost totally destroyed Lisbon and adjoining areas. Seismologists today estimate the Lisbon earthquake had a magnitude in the range 8.5–9.0) on the moment magnitude scale, with its epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km (120 mi) west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent. Estimates place the death toll in Lisbon alone between 10,000 and 100,000 people, making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in history.

In 1755, the earthquake struck on the morning of 1 November, the holiday of All Saints' Day. Contemporary reports state that the earthquake lasted between three and a half and six minutes, causing fissures 5 meters (15 feet) wide to open in the city center. Survivors rushed to the open space of the docks for safety and watched as the water receded, revealing a seafloor littered with lost cargo and shipwrecks. Approximately 40 minutes after the earthquake, a tsunami engulfed the harbor and downtown area, rushing up the Tagus river, "so fast that several people riding on horseback ... were forced to gallop as fast as possible to the upper grounds for fear of being carried away." It was followed by two more waves. In the areas unaffected by the tsunami, the fire quickly broke out, and flames raged for five days.

The event was widely discussed and dwelt upon by European Enlightenment philosophers, and inspired major developments in theodicy and in the philosophy of the sublime. As the first earthquake studied scientifically for its effects over a large area, it led to the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering.

Economic historian Álvaro Pereira estimated that of Lisbon's population of approximately 200,000 people, some 30,000–40,000 were killed. Another 10,000 may have lost their lives in Morocco; however, a 2009 study of contemporary reports relating to the 1 November event found them vague, and difficult to separate from reports of another local series of earthquakes on 18–19 November. Pereira estimated the total death toll in Portugal, Spain, and Morocco from the earthquake and the resulting fires and tsunami at 40,000 to 50,000 people.
Eighty-five percent of Lisbon's buildings were destroyed, including famous palaces and libraries, as well as most examples of Portugal's distinctive 16th-century Manueline architecture. Several buildings that had suffered little earthquake damage were destroyed by the subsequent fire. The new Opera House, opened just six months before (named the phoenix Opera), burned to the ground. The Royal Ribeira Palace, which stood just beside the Tagus river in the modern square of Terreiro do Paço, was destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami. Inside, the 70,000-volume royal library as well as hundreds of works of art, including paintings by Titian, Rubens, and Correggio, were lost. The royal archives disappeared together with detailed historical records of explorations by Vasco da Gama and other early navigators. The earthquake also damaged major churches in Lisbon, namely the Lisbon Cathedral, the Basilicas of São Paulo, Santa Catarina, São Vicente de Fora, and the Misericórdia Church. The Royal Hospital of All Saints (the largest public hospital at the time) in the Rossio square was consumed by fire and hundreds of patients burned to death. The tomb of national hero Nuno Álvares Pereira was also lost. Visitors to Lisbon may still walk the ruins of the Carmo Convent, which were preserved to remind Lisboners of the destruction The royal family escaped unharmed from the catastrophe: King Joseph I of Portugal and the court had left the city, after attending mass at sunrise, fulfilling the wish of one of the king's daughters to spend the holiday away from Lisbon. After the catastrophe, Joseph I developed a fear of living within walls, and the court was accommodated in a huge complex of tents and pavilions in the hills of Ajuda, then on the outskirts of Lisbon. The king's claustrophobia never waned, and it was only after Joseph's death that his daughter Maria I of Portugal began building the royal Ajuda Palace, which still stands on the site of the old tented camp.

 "PRAÇA DO MUNICÍPIO" - Town Hall Square

The Town Hall Square is a square located in Lisbon, Portugal. Located near the Praça do Comércio, on the Rua do Arsenal. The seat of the municipality of Lisbon, from his balcony, on October 5, 1910, the Republic was proclaimed, in front of thousands of people, concentrated in the square. Even today, the celebrations of Republic Day are organized in this square.

At its center is the pillory of Lisbon 

5 - LISBON CITY HALL 

This is a building that is worth a visit. Until very recently, there have been visits every Sunday. Now only open to visitors at 11 am on the first Sunday of each month. My suggestion: instead of a commented visit, should be made available on the building entrance, brochures in different languages. Please, Mr. Mayor. Why not visits each Friday evening ( 6 PM)??

Few tourists visit the municipal building. Perhaps because it is necessary to make a detour of 200 meters or because tourists usually come with little time. And because political leaders are not very interested. If any of these rooms and offices could talk ...

   Establishment of the Republic in 1910 (3 photos).  

Photos are taken inside the town hall. I do not have any photos that can be captured from the dome. The day I visited the building, the architect who acted as a guide and tried to speak the languages ​​of those visitors present, did not have time to take visitors to the top of the building: 

6 - ( MONEY MUSEUM )

Where strong rooms full of money once sat now emerges what remains of an ancient altar. Where cars parked previously, now emerges the ruins of a temple. After more than two years of work, the Bank of Portugal has completed the renovation of the São Julião Church in Lisbon and will reopen in the second half of 2013 as the Money Museum. The main entrance has long golden artwork in fabric (as the side panels in old chapels), created by artist Fernanda Fragateiro. The central nave is a multipurpose space that can house concerts or exhibitions, facing Lisbon’s Town Hall Square, where vaults once were. The church, originally from the 17th century, was rebuilt after an earthquake and was the last of the nine buildings that the bank acquired between 1868 and 1933. It will include the enormous door of the old vault where they kept the gold reserves of the country, leading to a "contemplative" space, with an exhibit on the history of money and trade in the world. And, archaeologists found the remains of a wall from the time of King D. Dinis, discovered during restoration work. This ancient city wall has been preserved for anyone who visits the church and Money Museum to see. According to archaeologists accompanying the work, in the past, the Tejo River came up here, and the wall was constructed precisely to protect the population from attacks from the sea. During the excavations, more than 100,000 ceramic fragments were unearthed from the Roman and Islamic periods, and even a vestige of the Royal Palace of Ribeira, that was touching the wall. Under the raised floor of the church were discovered more than 300 bodies from burials made during the 19th century.

RUA DE SÃO JULIÃO

7- CHURCH OF "NOSSA SENHORA DA OLIVEIRA"

Rua São Julião 136-140.
Paneled walls with blue and white tiles, with rococo decoration and representation referring to the birth of Jesus and the stages of the life of Mary and with images from the lost church of S. Julian and hermitage. Spectaculaire primitive and beautiful, has a very short hours. We need to push to extend the opening hours.

RUA  AUGUSTA

The most central and most important street of Lisbon. It connects the Praça D. Pedro IV (Rossio) and Praça do Comércio (Terreiro do Paço).

RUA AUGUSTA- ON LEFT
THE MUSEUM OF DESIGN

8 - MUSEUM OF DESIGN

Lisbon's exceptional Design Museum is one of the world's leading museums of 20th-century design and several critics see its collection as the best in Europe.

It was renamed the Design and Fashion Museum or simply MuDe(which also means "change" in Portuguese), and now also includes Portuguese businessman Francisco Capelo's fashion collection made up of 1200 couture pieces, including a famous Jean Desses gown that Renee Zellweger wore to the 2001 Oscars and Christian Dior's landmark 1947 New Look.

The design collection consists of works by some 230 designers representing trends in design from around the world. There are works by design icons such as Phillipe Starck, Charles Eames, George Nelson, Arne Jacobsen, Paul Henningsen, Vener Panton, Masanori Umeda, Henning Koppel, and Tom Dixon, and includes almost 200 design classics embracing innovative furnishings, glass, and jewelry from 1937 to the present.

In total it's 1000 design objects and over 1200 pieces of fashion by famous names such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, and Yves Saint Laurent.- FREE ADMISSION ( Text from golisbon.com)

PRAÇA DO COMÉRCIO ( TERREIRO DO PAÇO )

9 - Café "Martinho da Arcada"

The oldest of Lisbon and a favorite of the poet Fernando Pessoa.

One of his most frequent customers is undoubtedly Fernando Pessoa (which has a table permanently reserved). It is said that the writer would have been there the last coffee with Almada Negreiros, three days before his death, November 30, 1935. The author of  "The message" has adopted Martinho da Arcada cafe, in the 20s, after the customer café "A Brasileira do Chiado".

Lisbon – Downtown. 

  Other information, advice, and warnings.

  1 – Information

     A – Tradicional goods.

B – Restaurants
. Streets with many restaurants
. Rua das Portas de Santo Antão
. Rua dos Correeiros
. Rua dos Bacalhoeiros

B1 – Translation of menus

 

          B2 – Typical meals

               . Boiled or baked cod with boiled or baked potatoes
( “Bacalhau cozido ou assado com batatas cozidas ou assadas”)

BACALHAU ASSADO

. Portuguese cooked
( “Cozido à Portuguesa”)
Not advisable due to excessive fats. Cheats in its arrangement, to obtain more profits.

                     

                         Tip:

    Little steak with a fried egg and chips = (“Bitoque”, in Portuguese)
Pronunciation= ”betock”

            B3 – Traditional snack

   . Coffee with milk and a cake
( Galão e bolo)

. Everywhere and especially in bakeries, restaurants, gardens and inside all transports never put your belongings on the floor, next to you, or on a chair, beside you. Avoid carrying your wallet hanging from your shoulder.
You can suffer pickpocketing.

.Always check the bill. Check the amount consumed and its price. Compare the bill, with the prices contained in the price list. There are always mistakes,
especially with tourists. 

LISBON - BAIXA POMBALINA

   2 – Advice

A - Beggars

Amazing curiosity. Beggars and junkies jumping the underground barriers and travel,
free of charge, to the center of Lisbon. Those and the homeless are fed and kept in the most central locations in the city. And where they urinate? In the corners of the streets, against the monuments, trees, on either side. 

MOSTEIRO DOS JERÓNIMOS ENTRANCE

             B – Indigents

People that annoy everyone and sometimes frighten, trying to sell fake cannabis.
They are a real pest. You should answer them with courtesy, saying the word no.
Some of them have a ghastly appearance. They seem to be the masters of the historical center. Why not give them police uniforms?