Lisbon · self-guided walk

Belém riverside

Along the river at Belém, from the Central Tejo power station past the royal coaches and the presidential palace to the Jerónimos monastery, the Monument to the Discoveries and the Torre de Belém.

8 stops · 3.3 km · about 75 min

Distance and time are our curators' estimates for the whole walk, stops included.

The stops

The short version of each stop. In aiGuide, open Lisbon, choose “Belém riverside” and tap Begin walking tour; then lock your phone, and each story starts as you reach the stop.

1. 1Central Tejo

   Industrial era, 1914 to 1975

   

   You are looking at Lisbon's old powerhouse: tall arched windows, a steel frame clad in red brick, and white chimneys rising over the high-pressure boiler hall, fired up in 1941. Coal arrived by river and was unloaded right here. Inside, the giant boilers still stand, and you can walk among them.

   • Low-pressure halls built 1914 to 1930; high-pressure boiler building working from 1941.
   • Became a reserve station after the Castelo do Bode dam opened in 1951.

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2. 2Museu Nacional dos Coches

   Coaches of the 16th to 19th centuries; museum founded 1905

   

   You are beside a long white box lifted on concrete pillars: since 2015, the home of the royal coaches. Inside, look for three gilded Baroque coaches made in Rome for Portugal's 1716 embassy to Pope Clement XI. On the Coach of the Oceans, two old men, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, clasp hands.

   • Opened on 23 May 1905 at the initiative of Queen Amélia.
   • The riding school building of 1787 is attributed to Giacomo Azzolini.

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3. 3Palácio de Belém

   16th-century manor, royal palace from 1726

   

   You are in Praça Afonso de Albuquerque, looking up at a pink palace behind its garden terraces: the office of the President of the Republic. The tall column in the square carries a bronze of Afonso de Albuquerque, who seized Goa for Portugal in 1510 and Malacca in 1511.

   • Built as a country house in 1559 by Dom Manuel de Portugal.
   • Bought by King João V from the Count of Aveiras in 1726.

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4. 4Jardim Botânico Tropical

   Founded 1906; colonial exhibition of 1940

   

   You are entering a garden of palms, dragon trees and araucarias, with an avenue of tall Washingtonia palms. Look for the Macau gate of the Oriental Garden and the busts set in pairs along the paths: fourteen heads made for the 1940 exhibition to represent peoples of Portugal's African and Asian colonies.

   • Founded as the Colonial Garden by royal decree on 25 January 1906.
   • The main iron-and-glass greenhouse was built in 1914.

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5. 5Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

   Manueline, Age of Discoveries, 16th century

   

   You are facing the long south flank of the church, and your eye goes straight to its great portal, 32 metres high. The figure standing between the two doors is Henry the Navigator. Higher up stand the Virgin of Bethlehem, who gives Belém its name, and the archangel Michael.

   • Construction began in 1502 and continued for roughly a hundred years.
   • The south portal, designed by João de Castilho, is 32 metres high.

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6. 6Jardim da Praça do Império

   Estado Novo, 1940

   

   You are in a square of clipped box hedges between the monastery and the river. Walk to the big round fountain at the centre and look at its rim: the carved shields belong to navigators of the Discoveries. At the southern corners, stone seahorses by António Duarte rise over shallow pools.

   • Laid out for the Portuguese World Exhibition, 23 June to 2 December 1940.
   • The square measures about 175 by 175 metres.

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7. 7Padrão dos Descobrimentos

   Estado Novo, 1940 and 1960

   

   You are standing before a stone prow pointing out to sea, with Henry the Navigator at its tip holding a small caravel. Look down at the paving to the north: the compass rose, 50 metres across, with a world map marking Portuguese routes, was a gift from South Africa in 1960.

   • Height 56 metres; the compass rose in front is 50 metres across.
   • The 1940 original was plaster and tow, rebuilt in concrete and stone 1958 to 1960.

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8. 8Torre de Belém

   Manueline, Age of Discoveries, completed 1519

   

   You are looking at a fortress dressed up as a jewel box: rope-carved stone, crosses of the Order of Christ on every shield, ribbed domes on the turrets. Scan the bases of the bastion's turrets for a stone rhinoceros, carved soon after a live one from India reached Lisbon in 1515.

   • Designed by Francisco de Arruda and completed in 1519.
   • Officially named the Tower of Saint Vincent, after Lisbon's patron saint.

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