Lisbon's biggest square

My last post was dedicated to the Santa Justa Lift, both the area in the city center and the higher area it leads to.

Now let’s continue exploring the city center.

looking down Rua Augusta (Augusta Road) to its famous arch

old-style and new-style trams

zoom-in on the iconic tram

We were still quite far from the arch (and the square it leads to), so we walked around the area a bit instead of heading directly to the arch.

This is the Church of Saint Nicholas (Igreja de São Nicolau de Lisboa)

Take note of the steps leading into the church…they clearly show the incline of the road from left to right!

We also visited the other square with the tuk-tuks (that was in a previous post), then we headed to the arch. It is called Arco Triunfal da Rua Augusta, though in English they simply call it Arch of Rua Augusta. (Google Translate tells me that "triunfal" means "triumphal".)

through the arch, we can see the statue on the square

looking up

Coming through the arch, we reach a huge square called Praça do Comércio.

we immediately spotted a red tram

zoom in

And then we look back at the arch:

I didn't notice it before, but there is a Portuguese flag on the right, flapping in front of the building

the statue in the center of the square

like so many other places, the name of the city that everyone wants to snap a photo with

from another angle

From the last two photos, you can have a sense of how big this square is!

When we were there, they were blocking off a part of the square, either for these games, or for an event before the games. 

A road separates the square from the sea (or riverside).

We can see the statue of the Sanctuary of Christ the King (Santuário de Cristo Rei) in the distance:

see the cross-shaped statue high on its pedestal?

a place where we can walk down to the water

There were people making sand sculptures.

And there are some painted rocks, stacked up... we can even find this location on Google Maps. I am not sure of the origins though.

painted to look like a chicken or a person

As we walk west along the riverbank, we get a clearer view of the bridge that leads from Belém (on the shore on the right) to the Sanctuary of Christ the King.

But we won't be reaching Belém so soon...we still have some parts of Lisbon center to explore in the next post.