Pavilhão Carlos Lopes: From Rio to a Marathon Champion
Why is it significant?
Stop in front of the pavilion on the eastern edge of the park and look at its walls. Huge panels of blue and white tiles show battles and heroic scenes from Portuguese history, set into a building that looks like a palace that has wandered into a park and decided to stay.
Key Facts
| Place | Pavilhão Carlos Lopes: From Rio to a Marathon Champion |
|---|---|
| Address | Avenida Sidónio Pais, 1070-051 Lisboa, Portugal |
| Geo Coordinates | 38.72900, -9.15170 |
| Part of Walk | Up the Avenida da Liberdade: Lisbon's Grand Boulevard from Restauradores to Parque Eduardo VII |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in front of the pavilion on the eastern edge of the park and look at its walls. Huge panels of blue and white tiles show battles and heroic scenes from Portuguese history, set into a building that looks like a palace that has wandered into a park and decided to stay.
It did make a long journey. The pavilion was built as Portugal's showcase at the international exhibition in Rio de Janeiro in 1922, held for the centenary of Brazil's independence. Afterwards it was taken apart, shipped back across the Atlantic and put up again here in the early 1930s, first as an exhibition hall and then as the city's sports pavilion, where Lisbon crowds watched indoor sports for decades.
In 1984 it was renamed after Carlos Lopes. That August, at the Los Angeles Olympics, the thirty-seven-year-old runner won the marathon, the oldest Olympic marathon champion of his time, in a record that stood for twenty-four years. It was Portugal's first Olympic gold medal ever, and the country went wild. A quiet distance runner who had been written off as too old became a national hero overnight.
The building did not fare so well. In later years it fell into decay, closed for a long time, with cracked tiles and a sad, shuttered look at the top of the city's main park. A long restoration finally brought it back, and it reopened in 2017 as a venue for conferences, concerts and events.
Look closely at the tile panels before you go. They were made to impress a Brazilian audience with the glories of the old mother country, and a century later they are impressing passers-by in Lisbon instead. Now cut across the park to its western side. There, a gate leads down into what looks like a hole in the ground... full of jungle.