Tagus Route

• Landscapes of the Tagus
• Natural heritage of the Tagus estuary
• Points of Interest

Landscapes of the Tagus

From the Tagus we set sail one day, to the sea and out to the world. Today, ships arrive at the Port of Lisbon coming from all over. This river bed has been fundamental to the local and national economy since forever.

Bathers and washerwomen were frequent sights in its clear waters. Amongst its currents fishermen lived, farmers settled and discoverers set sail on boats made in Portuguese shipyards.

By transforming the lives of those living along its banks, the river's dynamics have sustained the cultural, symbolic, spiritual and affective dimensions of the Portuguese people.

Historically, the river’s avieiro fishermen keep on resisting the destruction its fish wealth. Its mills, such as tide mills or the Alburrica windmills, preserve the memory of a long and intense relationship between the river and its surrounding agricultural activity. Today, the extinct Portuguese Fishing Company has given place to the Almada Naval Museum, which pays homage to the old shipbuilding industry that once led Lisbon’s shipyards to be reputed as the best in the world. Las but not least, some of the most amazing works of architecture in the history of Portugal, including the Tower of Belém, the Monument to the Discoveries and the Jerónimos Monastery, eternally rest on its banks.

A river made of a symbiosis between past and future, surrenders its beautiful and serene riverfront to stunning views from contemporary buildings, including the Neo-Realism Museum, the Factory of Words, Casa da Cerca, the Lisbon Cruise Terminal and the Manuel Cargaleiro Art Workshop, an architectural project by Siza Vieira. Particularly privileged views can also be enjoyed from old treasures such as St. George’s Castle, the Triumphal Arch of Rua Augusta, Ribeira das Naus and Cristo Rei.

Today little remains of the Tagus’ frenetic activity, but the cities, legends, poets and paths to a new world that were born from its banks, now acquire new meaning as places of conviviality and leisure.