Santa Justa Lift

An iron tower of filigree arches and lancet-shaped tracery rises straight out of the grid of downtown Lisbon, carrying passengers 45 metres up from the flat streets of the Baixa to the hilltop square of Largo do Carmo. The Santa Justa Lift is the last of the city's old vertical street elevators still working in its original form, and it looks less like a piece of transport infrastructure than a slender Gothic reliquary cast in metal.

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. Two cabins finished in wood, mirrors and glass travel up and down the shaft, each originally licensed for 24 passengers and later for 29.

Lisbon itself is a city spread over steep hills above the Tagus estuary, and the lift exists because of that relief: the Baixa below is low and level, while Chiado and Carmo sit high above it. From the top of the tower a narrow iron footbridge spans the gap to Largo do Carmo, landing beside the ruins of the Carmo Convent, while a pair of spiral staircases climbs to a viewing platform over the rooftops, the castle hill and the river. The upper walkway was restored in 2006, and in 2002 the lift was designated a National Monument of Portugal.

Getting there

The lift stands in central Lisbon, about 1.7 km from the city centre point, at the end of Rua de Santa Justa in the Baixa district. Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS) is about 7.7 km away.