Lisbon Guide

Lisbon can be described as one big open air museum. Through the entire city you will encounter great tourist attractions. A citybreak will be too short to see everything. Therefore you will always have a good reason to come back and discover something new. The city centre is called the Baixa. Here you will find important tourist attractions like the majestic square called Praça do Comércio near the river Tagus. An imposing arch serves as the entrance to the city. But not only the Baixa is of tourist interest also quarters like the Bairro Alto, the Alfama and Belém deserve your attention.

Here you will first of all learn more about the history of this fascinating city, before we will highlight the tourist hotspots. The more background information you will have before going on a citybreak Lisbon, the more you will enjoy the city when you are really there.

History Lisbon

Lisbon has a long and turbulent history with great victories, but also with tremendous misfortunes. During time Lisbon has been occupied by different inhabitants such as the Celtic, the Romans, the Greek, Germanic tribes and the Moors. The first independent Kingdom of Portugal was declared by King Alfonso Henriques in 1139.
In the 15th and the 16th century the voyages of discovery brought the city a lot of prosperity. Lisbon turned into one of the most powerful cities in the world. But then the terrible earthquake of 1755, which caused a tsunami and a big fire, destroyed the city almost completely. When this disaster occurred Sebastião de Melo, better known as the Marquis of Pombal, was the prime-minister. He played a very important role in reconstructing the city.

The earthquake together with the invasion of Napoleon in 1807 and the independence of Brazil in 1822 led to the decline of the wealth of Portugal. The wide spread discontent within the country put an end to the monarchy in 1910. Portugal became a republic, but it turned out to be a very unstable one. A military coup in 1926 takes over the control of the government. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar became minister of finance in 1928. Salazar gained more and more control over the country and in 1932 he became the totalitarian leader of Portugal.
The Carnation Revolution in 1974, a left-leaning military coup, changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy and the expensive colonial wars were put to an end. The Portuguese colonies Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau became independent. The current President of Portugal is Aníbal Cavaco Silva.