Meeting Point

Casa dos Bicos (Fundacao Jose Saramago)

Se (Lisbon Cathedral)

Lisbon Cathedral (Sé) is one of the city’s finest examples of medieval architecture. Built in the 12th century, its Romanesque façade, massive stone walls, narrow windows and fortress-like towers give it a distinctly defensive appearance. Inside, we’ll explore its Gothic ambulatory and chapels, vaulted spaces and later architectural additions, revealing how the cathedral evolved over nearly 900 years.

Mouraria

Mouraria offers a fascinating glimpse of Lisbon before the 1755 earthquake. Originally the Moorish quarter of medieval Lisbon, much of its historic street layout survived the earthquake, along with buildings that preserve elements from earlier periods, including one of Lisbon’s rare houses with Gothic architectural features. We’ll also see examples of pre-18th-century construction techniques designed to resist earthquakes, offering a unique insight into how Lisbon’s builders responded to seismic risk long before the great earthquake of 1755.

Baixa

Rossio

Rossio Square provides an opportunity to look at several 19th-century additions and cultural influences within Lisbon’s predominantly 18th-century reconstructed city centre. We’ll explore the artistic patterns of the Portuguese calçada, the Neoclassical D. Maria II National Theatre, and the view towards the Carmo ruins, left as a ruin after the 1755 earthquake as an expression of the Romantic fascination with ruins.

Metro or Taxi/Uber

If you prefer to travel by metro, we can incorporate it into the itinerary. The journey offers an opportunity to explore the evolution of Lisbon’s network, from its original Green Line to the stations developed for Expo ’98, where architecture and contributions from artists became an integral part of the public transport experience.

Alameda

Alameda and Praça de Londres offer a fascinating look at how architecture evolved during Portugal’s Estado Novo dictatorship. We’ll see how early projects, including the Instituto Superior Técnico and the Instituto Nacional de Estatística, embraced aspects of modernist architecture and innovative structural design. We’ll then trace the regime’s shift towards a more traditionalist national style, known as “Português Suave,” visible in the buildings around Alameda and Praça de Londres. As this part of the tour takes us into a more local, less touristy area of Lisbon, it is also a great opportunity to stop for a snack or lunch and experience the neighborhood like a local.

Bairro do Arco do Cego

We’ll explore the Bairro do Arco do Cego area, a significant early 20th-century housing project that provides a context for the development of social housing and modern urban planning in Lisbon. It also offers an opportunity to discuss Raul Lino’s ideas about Casa Portuguesa and the search for a distinctly Portuguese domestic architecture.

Taxi/ Uber

Parque das Nações

Ending Point

Parque das Nações