Rua Augusta Arch

You've reached the end of Rua Augusta and in front of you is Lisbon's gate of honour. Before you walk through it, turn around and look back along the street you've just walked.

1A city drawn with a ruler

After the 1755 earthquake, the Marquis of Pombal's team, with Eugénio dos Santos and Carlos Mardel, redrew the Baixa with straight streets and buildings with matching façades. Many streets were assigned to trades: Rua do Ouro to the goldsmiths, Rua da Prata to the silversmiths. Inside the buildings they used the so-called gaiola pombalina, a timber frame designed to withstand future earthquakes.

2A patient arch

The arch was planned as the crowning touch of this new city, but its story was slow. A first version was demolished in 1777, when Pombal fell from power. Work only resumed in the nineteenth century under the architect Veríssimo José da Costa, and was completed in the 1870s.

At the top, the French sculptor Célestin Anatole Calmels depicted Glory crowning Genius and Valour. Lower down, Vítor Bastos carved four great figures: Viriathus, Nuno Álvares Pereira, Vasco da Gama and Pombal himself, together with two reclining figures representing the rivers Tagus and Douro.

The Latin inscription says, in essence: ‘To the virtues of our forebears, as a lesson to all’.

3What to look out for

• The top group by Calmels, with Glory and her wreaths.
• The four statues of historical figures, two on each side.
• The viewpoint at the top, opened in 2013, from which you can see the Baixa's grid.