Ascensor da Glória

Interesting facts

Its chief engineer, the Porto-born Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, also built the Santa Justa Lift, Lisbon's Bica and Lavra funiculars and the Bom Jesus funicular in Braga.

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.

Each car carries about 42 passengers plus a brakeman, and the climb along the 275-metre track takes only about three minutes.

The cars were built by the German firm Maschinenfabrik Esslingen and run on narrow-gauge track just 900 millimetres wide.

In the steam era the cars were held back by a Riggenbach rack-and-pinion system, which was removed when the line was electrified in 1914–1915.

Since electrification each car has its own electric motors fed by a 600-volt overhead wire, while the cable linking the two cars mainly serves as a counterweight.

The steam engine that hauled the cable from 1886 stood in a side street off the Calçada da Glória, the street the line climbs.

Before it stopped running in 2025, the funicular carried more than three million passengers a year.

In 1987 the Portuguese band Rádio Macau released an album and a single named after the funicular, with a song of the same title.

Why it is worth it

The Ascensor da Glória is one of Lisbon's signature machines: two small cars that climb and descend a steep 275 m street between the Praça dos Restauradores in the lower town and the Bairro Alto. The gradient is about 17.7 per cent, and the ride is short, but it links two different Lisbons — the grid of the rebuilt Pombaline downtown and the tangled hilltop quarter above, with the São Pedro de Alcântara garden and its viewpoint at the top.

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.

The cars climbing between the old façades are among the most familiar images of the city. The line's history also includes tragedy: on 3 September 2025 one of the cars ran away, derailed and struck a building during the evening rush hour, killing 16 people, including the brakeman, and injuring 21.

Getting there

The lower station is on the Praça dos Restauradores in central Lisbon, about 1 km from the heart of the Baixa; Restauradores station on the Blue Line of the Lisbon Metro lies beneath the square. Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS) is about 7 km away.

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia

The Glória Funicular is a hybrid funicular-tram line in the civil parish of Santo António, in Lisbon, Portugal, operated by Carris. It connects the Pombaline downtown with the Bairro Alto. Along with the Elevador do Lavra and the Elevador da Bica it is one of three such funiculars in Lisbon.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia