Wandering the Mesmerizing Streets of Old Town Lisbon

Old Town Lisbon is one of those places that you can’t help but fall in love with. Old Town Lisbon is famous for its seven hills, tiled facades, winding streets and picturesque street cars that give you all of those old city feels. You could easily plan out a day filled with stops. However, we found letting ourselves get lost down the tiled maze of streets. We walked into shops, tasted sweet treats, checked out churches and even visited some temples.

Check out this quick little Old Town Lisbon video we made. Like us on Facebook to follow our adventures.

Left: Looking down the road past the bright buildings to the river // Right: a collage of tile photos I took

CHOCOLATARIA EQUADOR

We just happened upon this darling little chocolate shop, but because we both have a major sweet-tooth we knew we had to pop in for a treat. We both got a little truffle, which was delicious! The woman working behind the counter was very helpful and helped us translate the flavors.

IGREJA de SÃO ROQUE

This church was the first Jesuit church in all of Portugal, and actually one of the first in the world. It was started in the 16th century and completed just over a century later. Entrance into the church is free, but there is an attached museum (which we did not visit) that has an entrance fee. We spent a decent amount of time in this church because there was so much to look at. The wooden ceiling is covered in a gorgeous mural and there are so many unbelievable details.    

MIRADOURO de SÃO PEDRO de ALCÂNTARA

This is sort-of like a park. There’s a terrace that overlooks the city with some incredible views and a fountain in the square. However, it wasn’t flowing while we were there. There are little shops setup here that offer things like Port wine, cheese, hams and souvenirs. Oddly enough, there were even two men walking around with a hawk + an owl to let you take photos with. We opted out because I didn’t think it was an ethical form of animal tourism.

You can see the Moorish Castle remains from here – Fun Fact: Portugal has more castles per capital than any other European country.

CARMO CONVENT / MUSEU ARQUEOLÓGICO do CARMO

Carmo Convent was built between 1393 and 1407. In its prime it must’ve been a true wonder, but unfortunately the earthquake that devastated most of Old Town Lisbon also destroyed Carmo Convent. Now, you can explore the convent ruins in its new form: a museum of archaeology. The walls were reconstructed and inside is filled with all kinds of archeological artifacts like mummies, books and arrowheads. This museum was incredible.

PRAÇA do COMÉRCIO

According to our food tour guide, this was the main square that people would enter when visiting Lisbon from the river. They would make a grand entrance through through this main arch to the city and palaces. Then trade and business took place in this gorgeous riverfront square. One of the things that currently resides in this square is the Museum of Beer.

MUSEU da CEREJA // BEER MUSEUM

Matt and I are both beer lovers. So, when we saw a sign that said Beer Museum, we had to check it out! While the vast majority of this building is just a restaurant, there was a small museum about the history of beer in Portugal and countries that were once under Portugal’s rule. It was very interesting, cost only €5 and that includes a beer to enjoy while perusing the museum.

ASCENDOR da BICA

Looking for that iconic shot of Lisbon with the street car going up the hill? Fun Fact: it’s not one of the normal trams. We wanted to stumble upon this on our Old Town Lisbon explorations, but that didn’t happen organically. However, we finally figured out it was a special kind of street car. One (well, actually there are two) that simply saves you steps going up and down one of the hill. It parks at the top for about 20 minutes, so you can jump in and take some photos. There’s often quite a crowd up here, but if you hang around for 10 minutes after it parked, the crowd clears up a bit.

Looking down the hill through the street car.

I loved watching the two street cars pass. 

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