The Most Beautiful Funiculars in Europe
7 places in 3 countries · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful funiculars in Europe are Santa Justa Lift (Portugal), Budapest Castle Hill Funicular (Hungary) and Ascensor da Glória (Portugal). The list covers 7 funiculars in 3 countries. Portugal has the most, with 3. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Funiculars, and their cousins the city lifts, were the answer to two problems in Europe: steep historic towns built on hills, and mountains that tourists wanted to reach with ease. Cable-hauled cars running on rails could climb gradients no train could manage, and from the late nineteenth century cities such as Lisbon and Budapest built them into everyday life while Switzerland pushed them up cliffs and mountainsides.
Lisbon has the richest collection of all. The Santa Justa Lift, opened in 1902, is technically an elevator, a neo-Gothic iron tower linking the Baixa with the Largo do Carmo above. The Ascensor da Glória, running since 1885, climbs from Restauradores to the Bairro Alto, and the Ascensor da Bica squeezes up a narrow, steep street lined with houses. In Budapest, the Castle Hill Funicular, opened in 1870, climbs from the Danube to the Buda Castle district.
The Swiss funiculars are feats of mountain engineering. The Stoosbahn, opened in 2017, is the steepest funicular in the world, with cylindrical cabins that rotate to keep their floors level. The Gelmerbahn, built to carry materials for a dam, climbs a gradient of over 100 percent to the Gelmer reservoir in the Bernese Oberland. The Niesenbahn climbs the pyramid-shaped Niesen above Lake Thun, alongside a service stairway with more than eleven thousand steps, the longest in the world.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | Country | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Justa Lift | Funicular | Portugal | |
| 2 | Budapest Castle Hill Funicular | Funicular | Hungary | |
| 3 | Ascensor da Glória | Funicular | Portugal | |
| 4 | Ascensor da Bica | Funicular | Portugal | |
| 5 | Gelmerbahn | Funicular | Switzerland | |
| 6 | Stoosbahn (Schwyz–Stoos funicular) | Funicular | Switzerland | |
| 7 | Niesenbahn | Funicular | Switzerland |
01 Santa Justa Lift
Elevador de Santa Justa
Portugal · 1.6 km from Lisbon38.712° N 9.139° W
Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 The idea of lifting people from the lower town to Carmo was first put forward in 1874, but the licence went to the engineer Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard only in 1882, and building work did not begin until 1900. Mesnier, born in Porto to a French family, chose iron and dressed it in a Neo-Gothic vocabulary, with pointed arches and openwork panels repeated across all seven storeys. The upper walkway was inaugurated in August 1901 and the cars entered service in July 1902. At first the machinery ran on steam; in 1907 the British firm R. Waygood converted it to electric power.
Did you know? King Carlos I inaugurated the footbridge to Largo do Carmo on 31 August 1901.
02 Budapest Castle Hill Funicular
Budavári sikló
Hungary · 3.2 km from Budapest47.498° N 19.039° E
Marc Ryckaert ( MJJR ) · CC BY 3.0 The funicular was the idea of Ödön Széchenyi, son of the statesman István Széchenyi, who had seen a similar line in Lyon. Built between 1868 and 1870 and originally worked by steam, it opened on 2 March 1870, among the very first funiculars in Europe, and quickly became part of daily life: within three years it was carrying a million and a half passengers. Bombs in the Second World War destroyed the upper station and one car, and the remains were cleared away afterwards. For decades the cutting lay overgrown while plans came and went, including one to replace it with an escalator; the line was finally rebuilt and reopened on 4 June 1986.
Did you know? The first test run took place on 23 October 1869, more than four months before the line opened to the public.
03 Ascensor da Glória
Elevador da Glória
Portugal · 1 km from Lisbon38.716° N 9.143° W
rippchenmitkraut66 from Rodgau, Deutschland · CC BY 2.0 The line opened on 24 October 1885. Its chief engineer was Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard. At first the cars were moved by water counterbalance, then by steam from 1886, and in 1915 the line was electrified. The Carris company took it over in 1926, and in 2002 it was classified as a national monument.
Did you know? The first cars were double-deckers: passengers sat facing inwards on the lower deck and back-to-back on an open upper deck facing outwards over the street.
04 Ascensor da Bica
Elevador da Bica
Portugal · 1.8 km from Lisbon38.709° N 9.147° W
BKP · CC BY-SA 3.0 The line opened on 28 June 1892, designed by the Portuguese engineer Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard. It is short — well under 300 metres, on a gradient of about 12 per cent — and runs from Rua de São Paulo, down by the riverside district of Cais do Sodré, up to Largo do Calhariz and Calçada do Combro on the edge of the Bairro Alto and Chiado. The first cars were moved by water counterweight, the descending car filling a tank so that gravity hauled its partner uphill; steam followed, and in the 1910s the line was electrified.
Did you know? Before electricity, the funicular went over from water counterweights to steam power in the 1890s, its first change of traction.
05 Gelmerbahn
Switzerland · 32.1 km from Sarnen46.614° N 8.309° E
Gzzz · CC BY-SA 4.0 The line was never meant for sightseers. It was built in 1926 by the hydroelectric company Kraftwerke Oberhasli to carry materials and workers up to the site of the Gelmer dam, part of the great scheme that harnesses the waters of the upper Aare, and for three quarters of a century it served the power station alone. Only in 2001 did it open to the public, and its industrial origins are still visible in the plain metal car, the metre-gauge track and the uncompromising line straight up the slope. It remains owned and run by the power company.
Did you know? The line was laid in 1926 as a works railway to build the Gelmer dam and the water conduit feeding the Handeck power station.
06 Stoosbahn (Schwyz–Stoos funicular)
Standseilbahn Schwyz–Stoos
Switzerland · 3.7 km from Schwyz46.991° N 8.673° E
Pakeha · CC BY-SA 4.0 What makes the ride memorable is less the number than the vehicle. Each of the two cars is built from four barrel-shaped cabins with wide windows, and each cabin is rotated hydraulically as the gradient changes, so the floor stays level from bottom to top. Passengers stand upright while the hillside tilts past the glass, board on the flat at both stations, and can bring a pram or wheelchair aboard without steps.
Did you know? The cars travel at up to 10 metres per second, about 36 km/h, hauled by a steel rope 54 millimetres thick.
07 Niesenbahn
Switzerland · 35.2 km from Bern46.639° N 7.690° E
Image by 12019 from Pixabay The line is split into two sections that meet at Schwandegg, where passengers change cars. The lower stretch is a little over two kilometres long and the upper one about 1.4 km, and on the steepest part the gradient reaches 68 per cent, and each car carries up to 60 passengers. Each half takes roughly a quarter of an hour, and the unhurried pace is part of the pleasure: the cabin rises through meadow and forest into open alpine pasture while Lake Thun spreads out behind it. The old name of the mountain, Yesen, is said to refer to the yellow gentian that still flowers on these slopes.
Did you know? The first plan for the mountain was a rack railway from Wimmis; the concession for a funicular went to the builder Johann Frutiger in 1902.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful funiculars in Europe?
- On our list, Santa Justa Lift (Portugal) ranks first, followed by Budapest Castle Hill Funicular (Hungary) and Ascensor da Glória (Portugal).
- Which country has the most funiculars in Europe?
- In our collection, the most come from Portugal (3), Switzerland (3) and Hungary (1).
- What is the steepest funicular in the world?
- The Stoosbahn in Switzerland, opened in 2017, is the steepest funicular in the world, with a maximum gradient of 110 percent. Its barrel-shaped cabins rotate so that passengers stay upright.
- Is the Santa Justa Lift a funicular?
- No. Although it is often grouped with Lisbon's funiculars, the Santa Justa Lift is a vertical elevator inside an iron tower, connecting the lower Baixa district with the Largo do Carmo.
- What is the longest stairway in the world?
- The service stairway along the Niesenbahn in Switzerland, with 11,674 steps, is listed as the longest stairway in the world. It is normally closed to the public except for an annual race.
- How many funiculars are on this list in Europe?
- The list covers 7 funiculars in 3 countries. Portugal has the most, with 3.