Castles · Tour

Private Alfama Downhill from the Castle, Past the Judiaria and the King's Fountain

A private walk through the oldest part of Lisbon, taken downhill from the castle rather than up to it. Alfama was the only built-up part of the city for a long time, and everyone who took Lisbon settled here: Phoenicians, Romans, Moors, Christians. The layers are still legible if somebody points them out. It starts inside São Jorge Castle, then works down through the Roman theatre, the viewpoints where the medieval street plan is visible from above, the Cathedral and the Church of Santo António. Along the way are two things most Alfama tours miss: the Rua da Judiaria, with the sections of Moorish wall still standing along it, and the Chafariz d'El Rei, the first public fountain in the city, where most of Lisbon came for its water. The walk ends at Praça do Comércio, and by then Alfama reads as a sequence rather than a maze.