Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
entry 30 minutes before closing, Largo do Chafariz de Dentro, tel. 218-823-470,
• This walk is over. To get back downtown (or to Praça do Comércio, where the next
walk starts) from the Fado Museum, walk a block to the main waterfront drag (facing mu-
seum, go left around it) where busy Avenida Infante Dom Henrique leads back to Praça
do Comércio downtown (a 15-minute walk, plenty of taxis, bus stop to your left, all buses
except #728 go to Praça do Comércio, bus #759 goes to Praça dos Restauradores; #9,
#90, and #746 continue up Avenida da Liberdade).
▲▲▲
The Baixa Stroll: Lisbon's Historic Downtown
(See “The Baixa Stroll” map,
here
.)
This walk covers the highlights of Lisbon's downtown, the Baixa, which fills the flat val-
ley between two hills, sloping gently from the waterfront up to the Rossio, Praça dos
Restauradores, Avenida da Liberdade, and the newer town. The walk starts at Praça do
Comércio and ends at Praça dos Restauradores.
After the disastrous 1755 earthquake, the Baixa district was rebuilt on a grid street
plan. The uniform and utilitarian Pombaline architecture (named after the Marquês de
Pombal, the prime minister who rebuilt the city—see sidebar, earlier) feels almost milit-
ary. That's because it is. The Baixa was built by military engineers who had experience
building garrison towns overseas. The new Lisbon featured the architecture of con-
