Belém Riverfront & 25 de Abril Bridge: The Atlantic Horizon

Why is it significant?

Stand on the edge of the riverfront promenade and gaze eastward down the broad blue Tagus estuary toward the soaring red steel towers of the Ponte 25 de Abril.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stand on the edge of the riverfront promenade and gaze eastward down the broad blue Tagus estuary toward the soaring red steel towers of the Ponte 25 de Abril. Stretching over two kilometers across the deep channel, this suspension bridge—frequently compared to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge—was inaugurated in nineteen sixty-six and renamed to commemorate the Carnation Revolution that restored democracy to Portugal.

Look across the water to the southern bank atop the cliffs of Almada: rising eighty-two meters on a stone pedestal is the statue of Cristo Rei, inspired by Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer, with arms outstretched over Lisbon in gratitude for sparing Portugal from the horrors of World War Two.

It was from this very shore that the fleets of Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Pedro Álvares Cabral weighed anchor into the uncharted Atlantic. Contemporary chroniclers recorded that thousands of wives, mothers, and priests knelt in the sand weeping and praying, knowing that many sailors would never return from the perilous oceans.

Watch the golden sunset illuminate the river current as maritime breezes blow in from the open Atlantic. You have walked the epic shore where modern world geography was charted.