Great views of Lisbon/Vistas excelentes sobre Lisboa: Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara

Here we go, more pretty pictures. The Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara has one of the finest views in Lisbon. It also helps that it's totally free. On a beautiful sunny day such as it was when we were there (on Xmas day, no less), you could probably linger for hours, taking pictures and sipping coffee. Anyway, here are some photos.

The viewpoint sits on the eastern slope of Bairro Alto, so all views are facing east. Handy Lisbon geographical reference: the city sits on the north bank of the Rio Tejo (Tagus in English & Spanish). So if you're seeing the river, you immediately know which direction you're facing.

This shows the viewpoint area itself. It's kind of a cross between a plaza and a park. It extends back a ways toward the street, and there's a cafe where you can get little snacks and coffee and sit under umbrellas.

There's also a lower area, which you can see here, along with Liz leaning in.

This is the view southeast. The water is the aforementioned Rio Tejo. The hill rising opposite is the Alfama district, one of the oldest in the city. The large church at the foot of that hill is the Sé cathedral, which everyone simply refers to as the "Sé". It's considered the most important in the city. The flat, low-lying area between the two hills is the Baixa, which is more or less Lisbon's traditional downtown. In reality, these days it's mostly a sponge for tourists, as it is central, right on the river bank, contains several pedestrian-only streets, and is the city's public transportation nexus. Most of the actual business that you would associate with a city's "downtown" is centered in areas north of the Baixa.

Here's a close up of the Sé. Look, a palm tree!

OK, so if you were to turn your head and follow the view northward from the previous pictures, you'd see the Alfama rise up and, at its crest, the stunning Castelo de São Jorge. Here is a wide shot to get a sense of scale and place. This castle has a muddled history. It is indeed a very old site of a castle. The Moors had built a rudimentary fortification here in the 12th or 13th century, and a few of those original walls are still there. Then various Portuguese royals did diffrent things with it. Of course, it also suffered damage during the destructive earthquake of 1755 along with the rest of the city.

By the time the 20th century rolled around, it was mostly a forgotten pile of crumbling rocks. People had built houses there and it was mostly invisible. Along comes Salazar, Portugal's dictator who ruled for almost half a century, from the '20's to the early '70's (to get an idea of what type of dictator he was, know that he was a major inspiration for Francisco Franco - although he was less militaristic and less sympathetic to fascism). Salazar, seeking a rebirth of the greatness of Portuguese nationhood, basically created most of what you see here from his imagination. All the residents that lived there were evicted, and a new, fanciful castle was built. Now, I don't want to sound like a Grinch. The castle is absolutely amazing and beautiful, and a legitimate iconic structure. But you will read about this ancient Moorish castle in Lisbon, and you must understand that the majority of the structure that sits there isn't even 100 years old. Anyway, it looks cool.

Here's a closer view of the castle. See all those trees? It's basically a big, lovely park now. They charge admission, of course, but it's worth it.

Here's an even closer close-up. Yes, you can hike up to the very tippy-top of the ramparts. Yes, the view is astounding.

As you keep turning your head north, to the left, the view becomes less awesome. Still a nice view, but the areas in the view are just less interesting. This area, which is almost directly across from the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara, actually has a rather nice viewpoint of its own, at the base of that large white wall. Not as cool of a view, but a very nice spot because it isn't nearly as crowded, and since it faces west, it has sunsets. Those nice pink buildings you see right above that white wall all belong to the local parish (freguesia). Pretty nice real estate, eh? (I'll be featuring photos from that area later on).

This is the most northwardly view from the Miradouro. You can see the buildings get a lot more modern (and "blah").

This is the fountain at the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara. I attempted to capture the sunlight filtering through the fountain's mist in order to be arty, but I don't know if it worked.

Here's me successfully being arty. Wrought iron silhouette ftw!