The 16 essential things to see and do in Lisbon

Built between 1514 and 1520 under Manuel I to guard the harbour entrance, Belém Tower is the Manueline monument par excellence: carved ropes, armillary spheres, crosses of the Order of Christ and a rhinoceros sculpted under a turret, a memento of the one given to the king in 1515. It once stood on an islet in the Tagus; the river has since shifted and the tower almost touches the bank.

The visit runs through the bastion casemates, the governor's room, the kings' hall and the chapel, then up to the top terrace by a spiral staircase so narrow that a traffic light regulates the way up and down. Together with the neighbouring Jerónimos Monastery it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.

Begun on 6 January 1501 under Manuel I and funded by the "vintena da pimenta", a 5% tax on the spice trade, the Jerónimos Monastery is the masterpiece of the Manueline style, a late Gothic laden with maritime motifs. Conceived as the necropolis of the Aviz dynasty, it holds the tombs of Manuel I and João III and, since 1880, those of Vasco da Gama and the poet Camões at the entrance to the church of Santa Maria.

The two-storey cloister, carved from top to bottom, is the centrepiece of the visit and requires a ticket, whereas the church, with its chiselled pillars and ribbed vault, is free to enter. The site has been UNESCO-listed since 1983; the National Archaeology Museum and the Navy Museum occupy the western wings of the building.

Alfama is Lisbon's oldest district, the one that survived the 1755 earthquake because it stands on the castle rock. Its stepped lanes tumble from São Jorge down to the Tagus between tiled façades, washing at the windows and small squares where sardines are grilled in June during the St Anthony festivities. The Sé cathedral, begun in 1147 after the city's reconquest, marks its entrance on the Baixa side.

Two viewpoints sum up the view: the Santa Luzia miradouro, with its pergola and azulejo panels, and Portas do Sol just above it, from which the eye runs over the rooftops, the dome of the Pantheon and the river. The district is also home to the Fado Museum and, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the Feira da Ladra flea market on Campo de Santa Clara.

São Jorge Castle crowns the highest hill in the centre. The Moors built the fortress in the 11th century; Afonso I of Portugal took it in 1147 with the help of crusaders, and it served as a royal residence until the 16th century before falling into ruin. The ramparts and eleven towers you walk today were largely restored in the 1940s.

The visit comes down to three pleasures: the wall walk, the gardens where peacocks roam and above all the viewing terrace, the most complete view of the Baixa, the Tagus and the 25 de Abril Bridge. A small museum shows the site's excavations, from the Iron Age to the Moorish quarter (temporarily closed for works in 2026), and a camera obscura in the Tower of Ulysses projects the city in real time.

Tram 28E is an ordinary Carris route that became an attraction: its yellow 1930s "remodelado" cars are the only ones able to handle the gradients and tight bends of the route. In about 45 minutes it links Martim Moniz to Campo de Ourique through Graça, Alfama below the castle, the Sé, the Baixa, Chiado and Estrela with its basilica.

The most spectacular stretch is between Graça and the Sé, where the tram brushes the house fronts of Alfama's lanes. It is also the busiest: the tram runs full there, and pickpockets are common.

Commerce Square stands on the site of the royal palace swallowed by the earthquake, tsunami and fire of 1 November 1755, hence its other name, Terreiro do Paço. The Marquis of Pombal had it rebuilt as a U open to the Tagus, lined with yellow arcades; in the centre the equestrian statue of José I (1775) faces the river, and to the north the Rua Augusta arch, completed in 1873, opens onto the grid of the Baixa.

This is where King Carlos I was assassinated in 1908 and where the Republic was proclaimed two years later. The Cais das Colunas, two columns at the water's edge, marks the old royal landing stage; ferries to Cacilhas leave from the terminal next door.

Two hundred metres from the monastery, the Fábrica dos Pastéis de Belém has been making its custard tarts since 1837 to a secret recipe that came from the Hieronymite monks: after the convents were closed in 1834, they sold it to the neighbouring sugar refinery. Only this house may use the name "Pastéis de Belém"; everywhere else they are called pastéis de nata.

The azulejo-tiled rooms run back to a surprising depth, and you can watch the pastry cooks at work behind a window. The tarts come out of the oven continuously and are eaten warm, dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar.

Thirty kilometres north-west of Lisbon, Sintra sits on a wooded serra whose cool air drew kings and aristocrats from the Middle Ages onwards; its cultural landscape has been UNESCO-listed since 1995. The Pena Palace, bought in 1838 by Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and built from 1842 on a former monastery, is its emblem: ochre and red towers, a Moorish dome, terraces clinging to the summit, a Romantic blend of every style above the clouds.

The rest of the day is split between the Quinta da Regaleira and its spiral initiation well, the Moorish castle on the opposite ridge, the National Palace of Sintra in the village centre with its two conical chimneys and, further out, Monserrate Palace and Cabo da Roca.

The Santa Justa Lift has linked the Baixa to Largo do Carmo, 45 m higher, since 1902. Designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, a Portuguese engineer trained in Gustave Eiffel's school, it is Lisbon's last vertical lift still in service and the only one in neo-Gothic cast iron: two panelled cabins, a metal walkway to the Carmo and a viewing platform at the very top.

From the terrace you take in Rossio square, the grid of the Baixa, São Jorge Castle on its hill and the Tagus. The lift has been a national monument since 2002 and is run by Carris, like the trams.

Bairro Alto is the grid of streets laid out in the 16th century on the hill above the Baixa. Quiet by day, shutters closed and washing on the balconies, it changes after 10pm: dozens of tiny bars serve into the street, and the terraces of Chiado below take over for dinner. The São Pedro de Alcântara miradouro at its northern end has one of the finest views of the castle and the Baixa.

Chiado, rebuilt after the 1988 fire by architect Álvaro Siza, lines up bookshops, theatres, the Brasileira café with its statue of Fernando Pessoa and the Gothic ruins of the Carmo Convent, left open to the sky since the 1755 earthquake. Between the two districts, the Glória funicular climbs from the Restauradores.

Built for the 1998 World Expo on the theme of the oceans, the Oceanário de Lisboa is one of the largest aquariums in Europe. Its 5-million-litre central tank, viewed on two levels, brings together sharks, rays, tuna and a sunfish; around it, four habitats recreate the North Atlantic with its puffins, the Antarctic with its penguins, the temperate Pacific with its sea otters and the tropical Indian Ocean.

It stands in the Parque das Nações, the modern Expo 98 district on the Tagus, with the cable car along the river, Santiago Calatrava's Oriente station and the Vasco da Gama Bridge, one of the longest in Europe (12.3 km).

The Fado Museum occupies the former pumping station on Largo do Chafariz de Dentro, at the foot of Alfama, the district where this song was born in 19th-century taverns. The route tells two centuries of fado with Portuguese guitars, posters, recordings and portraits of its figures, from Maria Severa to Amália Rodrigues and today's voices; an audio guide lets you hear the songs mentioned.

Fado, inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2011, is then lived in the evening in the casas de fado of Alfama and Mouraria: dinner or just a drink, unamplified singing with a twelve-string Portuguese guitar and a classical guitar, silence expected during the songs.

Housed in the Madre de Deus convent, founded in 1509 by Queen Leonor, the National Azulejo Museum traces five centuries of glazed tiles, from 15th-century Hispano-Moorish patterns to contemporary work. You follow the technique and the fashions: 17th-century blue and white, 18th-century hunting and feast scenes, 20th-century advertising panels and Art Nouveau.

The centrepiece is the Great Panorama of Lisbon, 23 m of tiles painted around 1700 showing the city as it was before the 1755 earthquake. The convent church, lined with gilt and blue panels, and the Mannerist cloister are part of the route.

A former fishing village turned royal seaside resort in the late 19th century, Cascais lies 30 km west of Lisbon at the end of the railway line that follows the Tagus and then the Atlantic. The pedestrian centre gathers the citadel, the marina, the small Rainha and Conceição beaches and the Condes de Castro Guimarães museum, a neo-Gothic palace set on a cove.

Two kilometres along the corniche, the Boca do Inferno is a cliff chasm into which the ocean crashes in rough weather. Further on, the coast road leads to Guincho beach, windswept and popular with surfers, then to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe.

Under the deck of the 25 de Abril Bridge, in Alcântara, LX Factory occupies an 1846 textile mill that became a printworks and then lay derelict. Since 2008 its brick sheds have housed designers' studios, agencies, restaurants, bars and the Ler Devagar bookshop, set in the old press hall with three levels of shelving and a flying bicycle hanging from the ceiling.

The place is visited like a neighbourhood: street-art murals on the façades, a rooftop with a view of the bridge, a makers' market on Sundays. It is the natural stop between the centre and Belém, a short walk from the MAAT and the Santo Amaro docks.

The church of Santa Engrácia, begun in 1682 on a Greek-cross plan, only got its dome in 1966, hence the Portuguese expression "obras de Santa Engrácia" for a never-ending building project. Converted into the National Pantheon that same year, it holds the tombs or cenotaphs of national figures: Amália Rodrigues, the voice of fado, footballer Eusébio, writer Almeida Garrett, and cenotaphs of Vasco da Gama and Henry the Navigator.

The Baroque interior in polychrome marble is impressive, but the terrace at the foot of the dome is what justifies the visit: a 360° view over Alfama, the Tagus, Santa Apolónia station and the Vasco da Gama Bridge, far less crowded than the miradouros.