Place · Portugal
The history of Lisbon, one place at a time
Assembled from 9 dug tiles · 108 sourced records · last reviewed 21 September 2026
Lisbon carries its layers close together: a hilltop besieged in 1147, a royal square rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake, a secret police headquarters that fired its last shots in 1974, and industrial waterfront turned into a World's Fair in 1998. Moors, kings, dictators and engineers each left their mark on the same short walks.
These are the individual spots Strata has dug in Lisbon — not a guide to the town, but a record of what happened on particular ground.
Digs in Lisbon
The building where the last shots for the dictatorship were firedOn the day the regime fell, agents inside this building were the only people in Lisbon who shot at the crowd, forty paces from where you are standing. Palácio do Barão de Quintela e Conde de Farrobo
1367–2025 The king who wouldn't sit for his own portrait
A bronze king faces a river, his face copied from a coin because he refused to pose, thirty feet from where his real palace once stood. Praça do Comércio
200 BC–1965 The bridge that gave a battlefield its name
A river ford that Arabs named for its bridge became the line Castile could not break in 1384, thirty paces from where you stand. Alcântara-Mar railway station
1755–2008 The city that starved for a king it never chose
A Christian army penned Lisbon in for seventeen weeks, thirty paces from where you are standing. Igreja de Santa Luzia
6379 BC–2013 The ledger the state kept for the poor
A savings bank founded for Portugal's poor grew into the country's biggest lender, 300 feet from where you stand. Portugal. Ministério do Trabalho e Segurança Social
1279–2011 Ground made twice, once by oil, once by a fair
The pavement under your feet did not exist before 1998, and neither did most of what came before it. Passeio dos Heróis do Mar
1856–now The knight who blocked a closing gate with his body
A tiled panel ten steps from you tells how Lisbon fell in 1147. Painel de Azulejos "Conquista de Lisboa"
6400 BC–2012 An architect who never saw it finished
A short walk north, one man's water tank outlived him by seventy years. Rua do Cabo
1431–2017 Where Lisbon's secret police kept its files and its cells
Four decades of surveillance and interrogation happened a hundred paces from where you are standing. Edifício no Largo Corpo Santo, n. 19 - 22
1506–1974
Lisbon in layers
c. 6400–3600 BC
Radiocarbon samples recovered nearby, part of the Cross-referenced p3k14c dataset, date to between roughly 6400 and 3600 BC, evidence of settlement long before Rome or the Moors arrived. OpenContext - Cross-referenced p3k14c
6379–6017 BC and later
Radiocarbon samples from the wider Lisbon area have returned dates as old as 6379–6017 BC, evidence of activity here long before any written record. OpenContext — Cross-referenced p3k14c
8th century BC onward
The castle hill above you was fortified continuously from the Iron Age through Phoenician, Roman, and Moorish occupation, finally taken by Christian forces in 1147. Wikipedia — São Jorge Castle
Roman period
Roman Lisbon was called Olisipo, a chartered municipality of Roman citizens on this same ground, cited in eight ancient texts. TopoText / Ancient gazetteer
Roman period
Ancient authors mention Olisipo, the Roman-era name for Lisbon, in eighteen surviving passages across eight texts, placing the settlement on this stretch of the Tagus. ToposText: Olisipo
Roman era
The Romans knew this city as Olisipo, a name cited across eighteen surviving ancient texts, centered near where the castle and cathedral stand today. ToposText - Ancient gazetteer
The Pillory of Lisbon, once used to punish and shame condemned people publicly, is classified as a National Monument in the municipal square close by. Wikipedia: Pillory of Lisbon
unveiled 19th century
Ninety meters uphill, a bronze statue of the poet Luís de Camões stands over eight smaller figures of Portugal's Age of Discovery writers, including the chronicler Fernão Lopes. Wikipedia: Camões Monument
medieval period
The Pillory of Lisbon, now a protected National Monument, marked the spot in the municipal square where offenders were exposed to public punishment. Wikipedia: Pillory of Lisbon
A short walk down the slope, Palácio Belmonte occupies part of the old walled town, its patio still carrying the name Pátio de Dom Fradique. Wikipedia - Palácio Belmonte
Paleolithic era
Primitive Paleolithic-era utensils have been found on the banks of the stream that gives Alcântara its name, in the parish that surrounds this ground. Wikipedia — Alcântara, Lisbon
The Catholic parish of São Pedro, Alcântara covered this ground, one of several overlapping ecclesiastical boundaries drawn across the district. FamilySearch — São Pedro, Alcântara
The Instituto Superior de Ciências Policiais e Segurança Interna, Portugal's police officer training academy, sits 284 meters from this spot. Wikipedia — Instituto Superior de Ciências Policiais e Segurança Interna
Igreja de Santa Luzia, a National Monument just steps from where you stand, stands by the lookout terrace overlooking the Tagus. Wikipedia — Igreja de Santa Luzia
The British Cemetery holds Royal Air Force graves from the Second World War, tended among the ordinary dead of Lisbon's English community. Wikimedia Commons photograph
Casa Fernando Pessoa, dedicated to Portugal's great modernist poet, stands about 270 meters from this spot in Campo de Ourique. Wikipedia
1147
Crusader forces joined Portugal's first king to besiege the Moorish-held city in 1147, a campaign later painted by Roque Gameiro and Joaquim Rodrigues Braga. Wikidata: Siege of Lisbon
from 1147
Construction of Lisbon Cathedral began in 1147 on the site of the city's principal mosque, once the Christian forces retook Lisbon from Moorish rule. Lisbon Cathedral - Sé de Lisboa
1147
When Christian forces under Afonso Henriques took Lisbon from the Moors in 1147, the church now beside you was built on the grounds of a former Moorish fortification. Tripadvisor - Igreja de Santa Luzia
1 July – 25 October 1147
From July to October 1147, Crusader and Portuguese forces besieged the Moorish city below the castle, one of the few Christian victories of the Second Crusade. Wikipedia - Siege of Lisbon
1147 camp; monastery 17th century
A short walk northeast, the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, begun on the site of Afonso Henriques's 1147 siege camp, now contains the pantheon where Portugal's Braganza monarchs are buried. Wikipedia - Monastery of São Vicente de Fora
1147
After Lisbon fell to Christian forces in 1147, the new Sé cathedral rose on the exact ground where the city's mosque had stood. Rexby (tourism source)
1 July – 25 October 1147
From July to October 1147, Christian forces and passing crusaders surrounded the Moorish-held city just below the castle hill, one of the few outright victories of the Second Crusade. Wikipedia — Siege of Lisbon
until 2013
This ground sat in the medieval parish of Santiago until Lisbon's 2012 administrative reform folded it into the new Santa Maria Maior parish. Wikipedia — Santiago, Lisbon
Questions about Lisbon
What is Lisbon known for historically?
Lisbon is known for the 1147 siege that ended Moorish rule, when a Christian army penned the city in for seventeen weeks until hunger forced surrender, and for the 1755 earthquake that flattened the Ribeira Palace and other landmarks, reshaping the city's centre around Praça do Comércio.
What happened at Praça do Comércio in Lisbon?
Praça do Comércio occupies the site of the Ribeira Palace, the royal residence destroyed in the 1755 earthquake. Its bronze equestrian statue of King José I, cast in 1775, was made from a coin portrait because the king refused to sit for the sculptor.
What happened in Lisbon on 25 April 1974?
On 25 April 1974, agents of the DGS, Portugal's secret police, fired from their Lisbon headquarters at the Palácio do Barão de Quintela e Conde de Farrobo on crowds outside, killing four civilians — the only shots fired at anyone in the capital that day. Soldiers stormed the building within hours, seizing its files and ending forty years of the political police once called PIDE.
What was Lisbon's secret police and where was it based?
Portugal's political police operated under the names PVDE, PIDE and DGS from 1933 until 1974, working from a headquarters near the Edifício no Largo Corpo Santo. The agency's only recorded deaths came on 25 April 1974, when its officers fired on revolutionary crowds.
What stood on the site of Lisbon's Expo '98?
The ground now covered by Passeio dos Heróis do Mar spent most of the twentieth century as industrial waterfront, home to a seaplane refuelling base and Portugal's first oil refinery, before Expo '98 razed the fifty-hectare site in 1998 to build the World's Fair.
What is the history of the siege of Lisbon in 1147?
In 1147, a Christian army under Afonso Henriques besieged the Moorish city for seventeen weeks near the ground now held by Igreja de Santa Luzia, until hunger forced surrender. Soldier Martim Moniz was said to have wedged his body into the closing gate of São Jorge Castle to let the attackers force their way in.