Alfama: the old Moorish quarter: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Old Lisbon on foot, from the river to the hilltop
Alfama was the whole city under the Moors and it stood through the earthquake that flattened its neighbours, so every stop here has a story that has outlived something.
The stops
Look at the wall: it is covered in diamond-shaped stones. Brás de Albuquerque began the house between 1521 and 1523, after coming back from Italy. The 1755 earthquake took the main façade and two floors, which were rebuilt from old drawings and paintings, and the José Saramago Foundation has had its home here since 2012.
Photo: Alvesgaspar — CC BY-SA 3.0 The Sé dates to 1147, when a new cathedral went up on the site of Lisbon's main mosque after the city was reconquered. It began as Romanesque and gained Gothic additions, and it was partly rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. The rose window you see on the façade was rebuilt from fragments in the 20th century.
Photo: Alvesgaspar — CC BY-SA 3.0 Tradition says this church stands where Saint Anthony of Lisbon was born in 1195, and a crypt marks the spot. The 1755 earthquake destroyed it, leaving only the main chapel standing, and it was rebuilt in a Baroque-Rococo style after 1767.
Photo: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL — CC BY-SA 2.0 A good place to get your bearings in the tangle of Alfama's streets, with the Tagus always in the background. From here you can pick out the dome of Santa Engrácia, the church of Santo Estêvão and the two towers of São Miguel. Tile panels here by António Quaresma show Praça do Comércio before the earthquake and the capture of the Moorish castle.
Photo: Manuel Menal — CC BY-SA 2.0 This was a water pumping station before it became the Fado Museum, which opened on 25 September 1998. Inside are artworks related to fado, sheet music, videos and hundreds of biographies, and there is an online sound archive of early recordings.
Photo: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL — CC BY-SA 2.0 King Afonso Henriques founded this monastery around 1147 for the Augustinian order, in honour of Saint Vincent, Lisbon's patron saint. The present church was built between 1582 and 1629, and the cloisters carry 18th-century tiles of La Fontaine's fables. The old refectory became a pantheon for the Braganza kings.
Photo: Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 4.0 Work on this church began in 1681 and stopped when its architect João Antunes died in 1712. It was only finished and reinaugurated in 1966, which is why "obras de Santa Engrácia" means an endless project in Portuguese. Since 1916 it has been the National Pantheon, where Amália Rodrigues, Eusébio and Eça de Queiroz are buried.
Photo: Pom' from France, European Union — CC BY-SA 4.0
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