About Portugal Lisbon

• Lisbon

  French filmmaker Alain Tanner called it the White City, and Lisbon is indeed a city of light, bathed by the sun lying by the River Tagus.

  City of contrasts, where 1,000-year-old monuments rival with avant-garde architecture. Where historic neighborhoods are crowded with new urban tribes. Where everything is possible in a single day, from the serenity of Lisbon's belvederes to the pulsing nightlife in countless clubs and bars.

  A cosmopolitan and unexpected city, open to the world and to all worlds.

• History

  According to the legend the founder of Lisbon was Greek mythical hero Ulysses. Most likely the Phoenicians were, around the 12th century BC. They founded a colony, which grew in size, population and importance. The present name ‘Lisboa' comes from the Phoenician ‘Allis Ubbo', meaning ‘charming port'.

  Successively Roman (‘Olissipona' and later ‘Felicitas Julia'), Visigothic (again ‘Olissipona'), Arab (‘Lixbunah') and Portuguese (‘Lisboa'), the city's superb location has always attracted peoples from distinct origins. It is still possible to find nowadays vestiges from all these civilizations.

  Conquered from Islamic rule, which lasted for 450 years, by Portuguese troops with the help of European crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, on October 1147, Lisbon would become the capital of Portugal in the middle of the 13th Century.

  By the time of the Discoveries, between the 14th and 16th centuries, Lisbon became the richest and most powerful European city, developing into a key trade center for spices and luxury products brought from Africa, Asia and South America and sold to the whole of Europe.

  As other European powers emerge, Lisbon looses part of its leading role in sea trade and influence. In 1755, a major earthquake devastates the Portuguese capital. Prime Minister Marquis de Pombal supervised the massive rebuilding works, developing an innovative architectonic style, which emphasizes rigor and functionality. Lisbon's Downtown, still today called ‘Pombalina' is the standing example of this huge urban intervention.

  Today, Lisbon is a city where tradition and modernity live side by side in a unique way of life, reinventing its cosmopolitan vocation everyday.

• Historic Center

  Lisbon's historic neighborhoods are centered on the hill where the city was founded, and where the medieval Saint George Castle stands, and extend along the Tagus banks towards the East and the West.

  These neighborhoods house Lisbon's truest identitary roots and are every visitor's mandatory destination.

  Alfama is the living testimony of Arabic Lisbon, with its alleys and labyrinthic narrow streets and its blinding white houses covering the hill from the Castle down to the riverbank.

  Lying between the Castle hill and Bairro Alto, Baixa, Lisbon's Downtown, with its post-earthquake architecture has been the city's shopping district for centuries.

  Continuing from Downtown uphill, Avenida district, along Avenida da Liberdade gathers the capital's most sophisticated stores, where all major international prestige brands can be found.

  As one walks uphill from Baixa to Bairro Alto, the visitor reaches Chiado, once Bourgeois Lisbon's heart in the late 19th and early 20th century, it's still today a meeting point for students, intellectuals and artists. It's also the district of historic cafes and theaters.

  Bairro Alto keeps it's historic atmosphere untouched while hosting, since the ‘80s, Lisbon's most vibrant cultural life, with it's countless clubs, bars, restaurants, designer stores, art galleries and bookstores.

• Belém

  On the riverside to the West, Belém is the place most associated with the Discoveries period. It's where Vasco da Gama's ships sailed from and also the place where the most impressive heritage from that period can be found.

  This district has several National museums and the Cultural Center, which is one of the major keys to the City's cultural life.

  Other attractions include its proximity to the river Tagus and its pleasant gardens and parks.

• Parque das Nações

  Once a decaying industrial area on the eastern section of Lisbon, Parque das Nações was the stage to 1998’s World Exhibition, after an unpreceded urban reconversion plan.

  Several cultural and leisure facilities, namely Lisbon’s Oceanarium, attract visitors from everywhere and represents a new Lisbon, facing the future.

• Around Lisbon

  Lisbon's region offers a diversity, which will meet a wide range, tastes and interests. Less than one hour from the centre of the city visitors may choose to enjoy inviting beaches, magnificent mountain landscapes of Sintra and Arrabida or the fertile agricultural plains of Ribatejo.

  The village of Sintra which was classified World Heritage by UNESCO is a small romantic wonder which inspired poets, writers and artists from around the world. The mountain where it stands is luxurious with breathtaking views over the sea.

  Former beach resort of the Portuguese monarchy, Estoril/Cascais keeps a most of its sophistication and charm from that era, with irresistible appeal to those who love golf and the sea.

  The mountain of Arrabida and the Sado estuary region, to the South of Lisboa, is known mostly for its wild natural landscapes, a unique example of Mediterranean ecosystem on the Atlantic Coast. On the Sado estuary it is often possible to watch the dolphins that live there.