A city set on seven hills, as the legend tells, Lisbon is the kind of place where you can sit at street cafes and watch the world go by. But for the eager there are also plenty of cultural activities. In addition to architectural masterpieces at Belem, Lisbon has over 50 museums to visit – some of which are Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art, National Coach Museum, and Carmo Archaeological Museum. The city of Lisbon is rich in architecture – Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Baroque, Traditional Portuguese, Modern and Post-Modern constructions can be found all over the city. But, Lisbon isn’t all culture and history, Bairro Alto is the center of nightlife with various restaurants and bars where melancholic traditional Portuguese music, Fado, can also be listened.

It’s a shame that tourists have no access to Belem Palace, but even from outside this is still something you shouldn’t miss. This is the official residence of the President and was built in 1559 by the noble D. Manuel de Portugal and is located in an area that you will definitively, surely not want to miss. In the 18th century this palace was called ‘palace of the lions’ and its badge seems to be the lion – solar symbol that combines Wisdom and Power – that can be seen in several locations around the palace.
The entrance to this Palace is watched over by two guards. The guards use a magnificent uniform, a curious helmet with a white tail and a sword that is hung on their belt… It makes you think you’ve gone back in time. Belém Tower was built in the Age of the Discoveries in tribute to the patron saint of the city, Saint Vicente. The Belem Tower is to Lisbon what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris or Big Ben is to London. In 1983 UNESCO classified it as a World Heritage Site.
It is the city’s most photographed landmark, which along with the marvelous Jeronimos Monastery should top your list of must-see monuments. The Jeronimos Monastery is the most impressive symbol of Portugal’s power and wealth during the Age of Discovery. King Manuel I built it in 1502 on the site of a hermitage founded by Prince Henry the Navigator, where Vasco da Gama and his crew spent their last night in Portugal in prayer before leaving for India. It was built to commemorate Vasco Da Gama’s voyage and to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for its success.

The Águas Livres Aqueduct (“Aqueduct of Free Waters”) is an historic aqueduct in the city of Lisbon. It is one of the most remarkable examples of 18th-century Portuguese engineering. The main course of the aqueduct covers 18 km, but the whole network of canals extends through nearly 58 km. Construction started in 1731 under the direction of Italian architect Antonio Canevari, replaced in 1732 by a group of Portuguese architects and engineers, including Manuel da Maia, Azevedo Fortes and José da Silva Pais. In 1748, although the project was still unfinished, the aqueduct finally started to bring water to the city of Lisbon, a fact celebrated in a commemorative arch built in the Amoreiras neighbourhood. From this period on, construction was overseen by other architects, including Carlos Mardel of Hungary and others. During the reigns of José I and Maria I, the network of canals and fountains was greatly enlarged.Bairro Alto is an area of central Lisbon. It functions as a residential, shopping and entertainment district. Today, the Bairro Alto is the heart of Lisbon’s youth and of the Portuguese capital’s nightlife. Lisbon’s Punk, Gay, Metal, Goth, Hip Hop and Reggae scenes, all have the Bairro as their home, due to the number of clubs and bars dedicated to each of them. The fado, Portugal’s national song, still survives in the new Lisbon’s nightlife. The crowd is a mix of local and tourist, straight and gay, and almost anything else imagined.

Rising from the river and reached by a footbridge is one of the world’s largest aquariums, designed by American architect Peter Chermeyeff. It is the closest thing visitors get to deep-sea diving without any of the risks, with about 25,000 fish, seabirds, and mammals in an enormous central tank, the size of four Olympic-sized swimming pools. Visitors can look into it from different levels for close-ups of the various creatures, including different species of sharks. It is the first aquarium ever to incorporate world ocean habitats within a single environment, with impressive recreations of various ocean ecosystems — the Antarctic tank containing penguins, and the Pacific tank with otters playing in rock pools.
To be continued….