4.2.7 Torre de Belém

Avenida da Brasileira

Location HERE.

Open daily 0900-1730; closed Mondays (Website HERE)

It’s reopened after a lengthy refurbishment. It looks better than ever. HOWEVER You need to read the part on ticketing. Carefully.


Monument, fort, protector of Lisbon from enemy ships, and now symbol of the city, the Torre de Belém, an outstanding example of Manueline architecture, was originally completed in 1521, but has been extensively rebuilt since then. It was given UNESCO World Heritage status, along with the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, in the 1980s.


What’s inside? Not a great deal. The recently refurbished walkway leads, via an open drawbridge, to the lower level, where cannon are laid out behind the windows. From there you can go up to the main platform of the Tower (CAUTION steep, very shiny, and uneven steps).

The Tower within the Tower has two further levels that can be accessed by visitors, but, basically, that is that. Whether that is worth the €15 per person entrance fee (half price for Seniors and Concessions) is left for the individual visitor to contemplate.


Even then, so many visitors to Lisbon feel the need to get inside the place; perhaps its presence in every guide book influences that approach. But the not so good news is that getting inside just became less of a formality - gone are the days when you could just turn up and queue. Why so?


Ah well. The refurbishment of the structure - coming not so many years after a similar exercise in the late 1990s - has served to underscore that the fabric of the Tower is not suited to having so many pairs of feet pounding over it every day. So strict limits have been placed on the numbers allowed in.


Visitors who arrive on spec at the entry to the Tower are referred to the website where online bookings can be made. Around fifty tickets per half-hour slot are available; on the day I visited, all that day’s allocation had sold out.

Online ticket website HERE.

E-tickets are scanned at the entry point: two staff supervise the process, backed up by two security guards. The likelihood of finding tickets available on the day you visit is not unadjacent to zero. Book well in advance.


Also, tickets are timed for a half-hour slot. DON’T assume that turning up “fashionably late” will get you a pass. DON’T assume that pleading with the staff at the nearby information point will have any effect, other than to waste their time, and, indeed, yours.

One plus point: if you can’t get a ticket for the Tower, there is always the Discoveries’ Monument, where the queue (line if you prefer) is usually short.

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