Destination

The resting place of explorer Vasco da Gama is a church built in the 1500s as part of a magnificent monastery. Its cloisters are considered among the most beautiful in the world and have been listed as a World Heritage Site.

The city's icon is also a symbol of the Age of Discovery. Built in the early 1500s, this ornate watchtower has been declared a World Heritage monument by UNESCO.

From the millennium-old battlements of this castle you have a bird's-eye view of the city in the company of roaming peacocks. Inside is a small archaeological museum and down the hill are a couple of terraces with perfect postcard views over Alfama, the city's medieval village-like neighbourhood.

Treasures from the East and the West collected by one man. This museum is now one of the world's finest private art collections. It includes works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Monet and René Lalique.

Across the Jeronimos Monastery, reached via an underpass by its gardens, is the Discoveries Monument, built on the North bank of the Tagus River in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator.

Lisbon's Oceanarium is one of the world's largest aquariums. Designed by American architect Peter Chermeyeff, it rises from the river and is reached by a footbridge.

One of Lisbon's most visited sights. The Coaches Museum (Museu Nacional dos Coches) has the largest and most valuable collection of its type in the world. It is housed in a richly decorated 18th century royal riding school that is part of Belem Palace, illustrating the ostentation and staggering wealth of the old Portuguese elite.

One of the city's best-loved landmarks and also known as the "Elevator of Carmo," this extraordinary structure was built at the turn of the century by the Portugal-born French architect Raoul de Mesnier du Ponsard (an apprentice of Gustave Eiffel, explaining the structure's similarities to Paris' Eiffel Tower), to connect downtown to Bairro Alto (the lowest and highest points of the city).

Built in the 1840s, it is one of Europe's most fantastic palaces, often compared to Neuschwanstein and the other mock-medieval castles of Ludwig of Bavaria in Germany, although it was actually built more than two decades before those. It includes a drawbridge, a conglomeration of turrets, ramparts, and domes, and a gargoyle above a Neo-Manueline arch, all washed in an array of pastel shades.