10 Best Viewpoints in Lisbon You Can’t Miss
Lisbon is built on hills, seven by tradition and more in reality, and every hill has at least one miradouro, a viewpoint with a terrace, a few benches and usually a kiosk selling coffee and beer. They are free, they are where locals go at the end of the day, and they are the best way to understand the city’s layout before you walk it. These are the ten we take guests to, roughly in the order we would visit them.
1. São Jorge Castle
The highest point of the old city and the obvious place to start. The castle walls date from the Moorish period; Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, took it in 1147. From the ramparts you see the whole of downtown Baixa laid out on its grid, the Tagus, the 25 de Abril bridge and Cristo Rei on the far bank. It is the only viewpoint on this list with an entrance fee, and the only one that gets a real queue, so come at opening time.
2. Miradouro de Santa Luzia
Just below the castle in Alfama, a small terrace with a pergola, bougainvillea and two panels of azulejo tiles showing Lisbon before the 1755 earthquake. The view is straight down over the rooftops and church domes of Alfama to the river. It is the prettiest of the viewpoints rather than the widest, and the classic photo of Lisbon is taken from here.
3. Miradouro das Portas do Sol
Fifty metres further along the same street, and the wider view: the whole of Alfama, the churches of São Vicente de Fora and Santa Engrácia, and the river to the east. There is a café terrace below the viewpoint that is a good place to stop for a drink before walking down into the neighbourhood.
4. Miradouro da Graça (Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen)
On the next hill north, beside the Graça church, with the castle in the foreground and the city, river and bridge behind it. It has a kiosk, pine trees and an evening crowd of students and locals; it is the viewpoint for sunset if you are staying in the east of the city.
5. Miradouro da Senhora do Monte
A ten-minute climb above Graça to the highest viewpoint in the city. The 360-degree view takes in everything: the castle, the Baixa, the bridge, the Tagus estuary and, to the north, the modern city. It is quieter than Graça because of the climb, and it is where we go when guests want the one view that explains all of Lisbon.
6. Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara
On the other side of the valley, at the top of the Glória funicular in Bairro Alto: a formal garden on two levels with a tiled map that names every landmark in the view. This is the view of the castle hill from the west, with the old city in profile, and it is the natural stop between Chiado and the Bairro Alto restaurants.
7. Miradouro de Santa Catarina
Further down the same ridge, a terrace above the river with the statue of the Adamastor, the mythical giant from Camões’ epic, and a view of the bridge and the docks. It is the most informal of the ten, with people sitting on the grass with a beer at sunset, and the closest to the Cais do Sodré nightlife.
8. Elevador de Santa Justa and the Carmo terrace
The iron lift built in 1902 connects the Baixa to the Carmo ruins above, and the walkway at the top is a viewpoint over the downtown grid, Rossio square and the castle opposite. The lift itself has a long queue; the trick is to walk up to Largo do Carmo through Chiado and reach the same walkway from above without queueing.
9. Parque Eduardo VII
At the top of Avenida da Liberdade, the park’s upper terrace looks straight down the avenue’s axis to the Baixa and the river, framed by clipped hedges. It is the widest of the city views and the one that shows how the 18th-century planners laid out Lisbon after the earthquake.
10. Cristo Rei
The only viewpoint on the south bank, and the only one that shows you Lisbon itself. The 82-metre statue, inspired by Rio’s Christ the Redeemer and inaugurated in 1959, has a lift to a platform under the figure’s feet with the whole city spread across the river and the bridge at your feet. It is a 15-minute drive across the bridge, or a ferry to Cacilhas and a bus; we usually include it at the start of the day on a private Lisbon tour, because from there the rest of the day makes sense.
Beyond the city
If viewpoints are your thing, two outside Lisbon beat all of the above for drama: Cabo da Roca, the westernmost cliff in Europe, on every one of our Sintra tours, and the Arrábida mountain road above the beaches of Portinho, on the Arrábida Half-Day Tour. Both are under an hour from the city, and both are the kind of view no miradouro in town can match.