LisbonPortuguese Lisboacity, port, and capital of Portugal, as well as the centre of the Lisbon metropolitan area. Located in western Portugal, it is the westernmost capital city in continental Europe and serves as the country’s chief port, largest city, and commercial, political, and tourist centre. The city’s name is a modification of the ancient Olisipo (Ulyssipo), and its founding has been attributed to the legacy of Ulysses (Odysseus), the hero of Homer’s Odyssey; to Elisha, purported to have been a grandson of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham; and, more credibly, to Phoenician colonists. Lisbon owes its historical prominence to its natural harbour, one of the most beautiful in the world. Area city, 33 square miles (85 square km). Pop. (2001) city, 564,657; metropolitan area, 2,661,850.
Character of the city

Once a remote outpost on what was thought to be the farthest edge of the known world, Lisbon established itself as a centre of operations for Portuguese exploration by the 15th century. The city centre was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755 but was rebuilt by the marquês de Pombal (see Lisbon earthquake of 1755). This seagirt city of multicoloured houses and elegant parks and gardens is no longer the capital of a vast overseas empire. It has been reconstructed as a bustling modern metropolis. In fact, Lisbon was designated a European City of Culture in 1994 and in 1998 hosted the World’s Fair (Expo ’98), which sparked the city’s biggest renewal project since the rebuilding that followed the 1755 earthquake, including the construction of the combined road-rail Vasco da Gama Bridge and other extensive upgrades of the city’s transportation infrastructure. The fair also was the primary catalyst for the construction along the Tagus River of an oceanarium, marinas, hotels, commercial complexes, and entertainment venues.

Despite modernization, Lisbon in many ways retains the air of a 19th-century city. The varinas (fish vendors) who roam the streets dressed in long black skirts still carry their wares in baskets on their heads. Vessels tie up at quays where the clang of trolley cars blends with ships’ horns. At dawn, fishing boats deposit their catch for noisy auction with Lisbon shop owners, while the fish vendors wait to fill the baskets they peddle through the streets. Farther inland, the fish market gives way to the equally colourful and clamorous fruit and vegetable market. Lisbon’s port also maintains an intimacy with its city that was common in the days before steam. Amid the freighters, warships, cruise liners, and ferryboats, a picturesque note is struck by the fragatas of Phoenician origin; these crescent-shaped boats with their striking black hulls and pink sails still perform most of the harbour’s lighterage.

The general outlines of the city remain as they have for hundreds of years. Lisbon is still a city of balconies and vistas. Some of the most striking of the latter can be seen from the miradouros, the terraces maintained by the municipality on seven of its hillsides. (Many Lisboetas, as the people of Lisbon are known, profess their city to have seven traditional hills, like Rome.) For centuries Lisboetas have discussed the symptoms of an affliction they believe to be endemic in their city: saudade (“melancholy”), a state of anxiety tempered by fatalism that is said to be reflected in fado (“fate”), the melodic but deeply emotional folk songs that can still be heard in specific restaurants, mainly in the historic quarters of Alfama and Bairro Alto.

City site

The city lies on the north bank of the Tagus River, about 8 miles (13 km) from the river’s entrance into the Atlantic Ocean. From the ocean upstream to the city, the river is almost straight and about 2 miles (3 km) wide. It is spanned, on the west side of the city, by the 25th of April Bridge. Just east of the bridge, the Tagus suddenly broadens into a bay 7 miles (11 km) wide called the Mar de Palha (“Sea of Straw”) because of the way that it shimmers in the sun. Scenically spectacular, this hill-cradled bay of burnished water lies on a strategic sea route and serves as a busy port, handling much of the trade between Portugal and Spain.

Lisbon is built in a succession of terraces up the slopes of a range of low rolling hills that rise from the banks of the Tagus River and the Mar de Palha northwest toward the Sintra Mountains, whose covering of lush Mediterranean and Atlantic European flora provides an attractive retreat for the city’s population. Sections of the city vary considerably in elevation, especially in the older areas along the water’s edge, which offer splendid views of the river and the low cliffs that line the river’s southern shore. Several geologic faults cross Lisbon and the surrounding region, but, notwithstanding the devastating earthquake of 1755, seismic activity has been limited to slight tremors since the 20th century.


Lisbon has a mild and equable climate, with a mean annual temperature in the low 60s F (about 17 °C). The proximity of the Atlantic Ocean and the influence of the Gulf Stream mediate the weather conditions throughout the year. January, the coldest month, has an average temperature of 50 °F (10 °C), and in August the temperature seldom exceeds 82 °F (28 °C). Average monthly rainfall ranges from 0.1 inch (3 mm) in summer up to about 4 inches (100 mm) in winter.

City layout

It is traditional for poets to refer to the entwining Tagus as Lisbon’s lover. The river is indeed an ever-present part of the city’s decor, and the official entrance to Lisbon is a broad marble staircase mounting from the water to the vast, arcaded Commerce Square (Praça do Comércio). The three landward sides of the square are surrounded by uniform buildings dating from the 18th century. This formal, Baroque-inspired layout is pierced by a monumental archway, built a century later, marking the entry north into the central city. In the middle of the square stands a bronze statue of King Joseph I on horseback, an important work by the sculptor Joachim Machado de Castro. Many government offices occupy the buildings that surround Commerce Square.

The square lies at the south end of Lisbon’s central district, the Cidade Baixa (“Lower City”). The Baixa was completely rebuilt after the earthquake in 1755 under the supervision of Joseph I’s prime minister, Sebastião de Carvalho, later the marquês de Pombal. The streets are laid out in a grid pattern broken by spacious squares. A series of parallel streets, each named for its original intended occupants (e.g., Rua Áurea [“Golden Street”] for the goldsmiths), runs north from Commerce Square to Dom Pedro IV Square, locally known as Rossio Square. Rossio Square is a traditional centre of activity and the starting point of the city’s main promenade, the wide, gently sloping Avenida da Liberdade. This treelined boulevard leads north from the city centre to Marquês de Pombal Circle, which features a statue of Pombal. The Baixa remains rigorously protected from change, but the four-story buildings that long lined Avenida da Liberdade and its ancillary streets have been almost totally replaced by taller edifices in a bland, modern style.

In the sequence of post-earthquake reconstruction, the waterfront’s renovation was followed by the rehabilitation of historical districts, such as Castelo, Alfama, Bairro Alto, Mouraria, and Madragoa, and fashionable residential areas, such as Chiado, Lapa, Estrela, and Príncipe Real. In 1988 a fire destroyed part of the city’s historic Chiado district, which was rebuilt as a shopping area during the 1990s. Rua Garrett in Chiado is lined with boutiques, silver and porcelain shops, cafés, and bookstores. Peripheral neighbourhoods, such as Ajuda to the west, Rato-Amoreiras to the north, and Graça to the east, were also planned at this time.

Directly east of the Baixa lies Alfama (Arabic: Al-Ḥammah; “Hot Spring”); one of the oldest quarters of the city, it has a blend of Roman and Moorish architecture and narrow streets that crowd between a jumble of houses down to the river. In this area, on the hill where Lisbon was first founded, the Castle of St. George (Castelo de São Jorge) towers over the city. The castle is Moorish in origin and was named for England’s patron saint, in honour of an alliance made in 1386 between Portugal and England. Just below it, the austere white church and monastery of St. Vincent guards the remains of the saint, which (according to legend) were miraculously brought to the city in a ship guided by two ravens. To commemorate the event, the birds are depicted on the Lisbon coat of arms.

Also to the east, Chelas and Olivais-Sul, two public housing districts implanted on heathland previously considered too difficult to build upon, provide residence for lower-income families. Despite these government-sponsored projects, adequate housing remains a problem as an influx of immigrants (mainly Africans, eastern Europeans, and Brazilians) has caused a housing deficit.

A number of neighbourhoods extend west of the Baixa toward the suburb of Belém. Each possesses its own distinctive character, reflecting the epoch in which it was built. The Bairro Alto (“Upper District”), for example, dates primarily from the 16th century. It is characterized by its maze of straight and narrow streets. Some of these streets, especially those leading down to the Baixa, are so steep that they terminate abruptly, giving way to stairs, cable cars, and, in one case, an elevator (the Santa Justa Lift; an iron structure designed by French architect Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard). Just west and north of the heart of Bairro Alto is the Palace of the National Assembly, also known as the Palace of São Bento. Nearby is the official residence of Portugal’s prime minister. Farther west, toward Belém, Necessidades Palace houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Belém Palace, a former royal residence, is the official home of the president of the republic. The Belém area reflects Portugal’s maritime past and is known for its Manueline (early 16th-century) architecture, notably the Jerónimos Monastery, founded by Manuel I in 1499, and the Tower of Belém (1515–21; designated a World Heritage site in 1983), which was built to defend the city. The Monument to the Discoveries (1960) on the Tagus River commemorates Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Belém-Restelo district, a sumptuous residential area in the western periphery, developed from the 1940s.

To the north, the transition between the city and the suburb is not marked. Vast shopping complexes such as Amoreiras and Colombo, along with residential apartment buildings, stretch north and northwest from the Marquês de Pombal Circle. These modern, colourful, mid-rise structures were designed by Lisbon architects.

Suburban development affected the city’s character starting in the second half of the 20th century, when Lisbon lost about half its population because of migration to the periphery. New housing developments replaced manufacturing plants in Greater Lisbon. In the north, near the University of Lisbon campus, two neighbourhoods, Alvalade (which sprouted in the 1940s and 1950s) and Telheiras (which developed from the 1970s to the 1990s), were among the most successful examples of urban planning in the 20th century. Many affluent families have moved out of the city to newer gated communities or to villas in Greater Lisbon, mostly to the surrounding regions of Oeiras, Cascais, and Sintra.


Although the Lisbon metropolitan area occupies only about 3 percent of Portugal’s total area, more than one-fourth of the country’s inhabitants reside there. Lisbon experienced a population surge in the 1970s owing to migration from the country’s rural areas as well as the return of Portuguese citizens who had been living in Portugal’s African colonies, which attained independence in 1975. Migration rates stabilized in the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, however, Africans, mainly from Cape Verde, were the most populous immigrant group; with a birth rate considerably higher than the national average, they contributed to a renewed growth of the population.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the foreign population accounted for about one-tenth of Lisbon residents. In addition to those from Cape Verde, immigrants arrived from Brazil, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and various European countries. There are also smaller South Asian communities in the city proper and metropolitan area. Although this migratory current has put a strain on the city’s resources, Lisbon’s mixed population has transformed the city into a cosmopolitan and dynamic metropolis.


Lisbon’s economy has historically been based on the fishing industry. Since the 1970s other industries have migrated from the Baixa to other locales in the metropolitan area. Following the 1975 revolution, Lisbon’s heavy industries were nationalized. By the 1980s they were reprivatized, with multinational companies dominating the technology and pharmaceutical industries. Since the 1990s services have become the dominant economic activity of Lisbon.


Heavy industry (i.e., shipbuilding, steelworks, and oil refining) has become obsolete; however, plants were modernized to produce automotive parts, chemicals, electronics, tobacco, paper, and foodstuffs. Since the 1990s, foreign-owned automotive assembly and food production plants have opened in newly constructed industrial centres in the metropolitan area. Traditional industries such as cork and textiles have maintained their competitiveness through technological innovation, however.

Finance and other services

Service activities dominate the Lisbon economy, employing more than three-fourths of the labour force. Tourism and commerce have played a major part in Lisbon’s modernization, and revenues from tourism have helped offset usually negative national trade balances. The 1998 World’s Fair and the impressive waterfront renovation have contributed significantly to a new image of Lisbon. The fair sparked a radical renewal of the most derelict areas of the city. Slaughterhouses, waste treatment centres, and oil refineries have given way to recreational and health centres, museums, hotels, and new housing. Lisbon’s temperate climate, nearby beaches, castles, and historic districts attract a significant number of tourists each year, and the city is a popular port of call for cruise ships. Several foreign bank branches operate in the city. Since Portugal’s entrance into the European Economic Community (later succeeded by the European Union) in 1986, there has been an increase in the number of foreign financial institutions and corporations in Lisbon. Large retail outlets and department stores have opened in the Baixa and on the periphery of the Lisbon city centre.


Lisbon is connected by rail and road to the interior of Portugal and to the rest of Europe. The 1.5-mile- (2.4-km-) long 25th of April Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in western Europe, has served as the main roadway into the city since it was built in the mid-1960s. Inaugurated in 1998, just in time for the World’s Fair, the cable-stayed, combined-purpose Vasco da Gama Bridge, connecting Lisbon and the eastern portion of the metropolitan area to the southern shore, relieved traffic congestion on the 25th of April Bridge and provided additional rail access. A number of other public- and private-funded improvements to the city’s transportation infrastructure were undertaken in the1990s in preparation for the fair. Notably, a new subway line was added to the system whose first route opened in 1959, and the trolley system in the historic district that primarily served tourists was refurbished and expanded. Also expanded and modernized was the airport at Portela de Sacavém, some 6 miles (10 km) northeast of the city centre, which offers flights to Europe, the Americas, and Africa. The construction of new highways and underground parking lots increased automobile usage, however, and the abundance of cars increased traffic and pollution in the city.

Administration and society

As the capital of Portugal, Lisbon and its surrounding suburbs house all of the country’s principal government institutions. Lisbon is divided administratively into concelhos (municipalities). The municipalities are further divided into bairros (wards) and freguesias (parishes). Representatives to parish assemblies are chosen through local elections for four-year terms. They then elect an executive body, the parish committee. Lisbon’s municipal assembly consists of representatives chosen by their parish committees and members directly elected by the local citizens. It serves as the legislative branch of local government and elects the executive branch, the municipal council and the mayor. The municipalities of Lisbon city and its metropolitan area constitute the distrito (district) of Lisbon, which is headed by a civil governor, who is appointed by and responsible to the central government through the minister of the interior.


As a major urban centre, Lisbon has a higher percentage of doctors and other health professionals than the rest of Portugal. The city’s hospitals include state, private, and military establishments. Since the 1990s, efforts have been made to modernize the city’s public hospitals, and branches of larger hospitals have opened in other areas of the city.


Officially, education in Portugal is free and compulsory for children ages 6 through 15. In addition to public schools, Lisbon has many private schools, including American, French, German, Spanish, and Swedish schools.The medieval University of Lisbon was founded in 1288 and remained Portugal’s only university until the 16th century. It moved back and forth between Lisbon and Coimbra several times before settling in Lisbon from 1377 to 1537, when it permanently relocated to Coimbra and took the name of that city. Thus, the capital was left without a university until 1911, when the University of Lisbon was restored. The Technical University of Lisbon was founded in 1930, and the New University of Lisbon opened in the city during the 1970s. The Catholic University of Portugal was established under the tutelage of the Roman Catholic Church in 1968. Lisbon also has a large number of specialized colleges and polytechnical institutes. Prior to the 1974 coup in Portugal, university education was restricted to the elite. Not until the 1990s did the number of university applicants increase, and then, after a brief flourishing of private universities, student applications decreased again in the 2000s. Many Portuguese students have chosen to study abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, while a number of new immigrants have opted to enter the workforce rather than pursue higher education.

Cultural life

Lisbon’s rich cultural life was further enhanced in the 1990s by the city’s preparations for hosting the World’s Fair, including the construction of the Belém Cultural Centre (1992), which offers visual and performing arts and houses exhibits, an auditorium, and an arts complex. It is but one component of the city’s network of cultural centres, public libraries, and research institutes. Another prominent cultural institution, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Museum, presents music and ballet, exhibits other fine arts, and displays the broad-ranging personal collection of its eponymous benefactor, an Armenian oil-lease negotiator who lived in Lisbon from 1942 until his death in 1955. Culturgest, a multifunctional auditorium and exhibition centre, opened in Lisbon in the early 2000s.

The city has many other museums, including those dedicated to modern, antique, sacred, decorative, and folk arts. Two specialized, rather unusual museums are the Azulejo Museum and the National Museum of Coaches. The former, located in the convent of Madre de Deus, boasts a large and varied collection of the painted tiles (azulejos) for which the Iberian Peninsula is famous. The National Museum of Coaches occupies a wing of the Portuguese president’s official residence and contains an impressive display of carved and gilded coaches.

Lisbon’s municipal orchestra was founded in 1971. The city is also the site of the National Conservatory, which offers advanced instruction in both music and drama. The St. Charles and the National Theatre of Dona Maria II are Lisbon’s two principal theatres. The former, which was constructed in the late 18th century, has a beautiful elliptical interior, and the latter, which was built about 1845, displays a facade of six giant columns saved from the convent church of St. Francisco, which was destroyed by an earthquake. The interior, gutted by fire in 1966, has been restored.

Neither of these edifices is as theatrical as the interiors of some of the churches built or restored after the 1755 earthquake. In gold, marble, carved wood, and rare tiles, these interiors are decorated in Baroque, Rococo, or rocaille style. One outstanding example is the 16th-century church of St. Roque, whose unpretentious exterior belies its opulent collection of painted tiles, paintings, and mosaics inlaid with semiprecious stones.

The city’s old red-brick bullring, Campo Pequeno, with its Moorish arches and cupolas, draws natives and tourists alike to witness the Portuguese manner of bullfighting. Campo Pequeno reopened in 2006 after a major renovation, which included the addition of a shopping mall, cinema, restaurants, and a supermarket.

Lisbon is distinguished as one of the few places in the world whose chief Roman Catholic clergyman bears the title of patriarch. However, Lisboetas are typically less devout than the northern Portuguese and attend church mainly for rites such as christenings, weddings, and funerals. Religious processions are generally subdued affairs, without the colour and the drama found in Spain. The June feasts of the popular saints (St. Anthony, St. John, and St. Peter) are exceptions. Lisboetas celebrate them by donning imaginative costumes, jumping over bonfires, and dancing in the streets until dawn. Indeed, these lively events, held in the city’s historical districts, retain all the pagan elements of a midsummer festival.

Lisbon has several sports and recreational areas. Many of the housing developments are planted with trees and grass, their small parks adding to Lisbon’s collection of dozens of public gardens. The largest public park, Monsanto, covers about 3.5 square miles (9 square km) and has numerous recreational facilities. Rolling hills planted from the 1930s provide a windbreak for the city and are now thickly forested. There are also botanical gardens and a zoo within the city. Football (soccer) is very popular in Portugal, and three of the country’s most prominent teams call Lisbon home: FC Porto, BeneficaBenfica, and the Sporting Club of LisbonSporting Clube de Portugal.