Praça do Comércio e Cais das Colunas

Few places explain Lisbon as clearly as Praça do Comércio and Cais das Colunas. Before the 1755 earthquake, the Ribeira Palace stood here; after the catastrophe, the Pombaline reconstruction turned the old Terreiro do Paço into a regular square open to the Tagus, expressing the capital’s new commercial and political role. The long arcades, the towers and the equestrian statue of King José the First give the whole ensemble the solemnity of a great urban stage, yet it is by the river that the place gains a different intensity. Cais das Colunas, conceived within this new bond between city and water, served as Lisbon’s ceremonial landing place for those arriving by river. Today, between the square’s luminous geometry, the broad horizon of the estuary and the steps that almost touch the Tagus, this ensemble still shows that Lisbon has always understood itself best when facing the river.