Restaurants, bars and museums in Lisbon · Page 2

Aqueduto das Águas Livres

Campo de Ourique

Monuments & Historic Buildings

The Aqueduto das Águas Livres, known in English as the Águas Livres Aqueduct, is a baroque hydraulic structure commissioned by King Dom João V and built between 1731 and 1799. It gathers water and moves it by gravity alone, with a fall of roughly 3 mm for each metre. The description submitted to UNESCO's tentative list calls it the last great classical aqueduct built anywhere in the world. It has been classified as a National Monument since 1910. The address is Rua Particular 1 à Calçada da Quintinha, 1070-079 Lisboa. The whole network measures roughly 58 km. It consists of the Main Aqueduct, which runs for 14.256 km, plus a series of subsidiary aqueducts and head race tunnels. The springs lie about 15 km northwest of Lisbon, and the Main Aqueduct was fed by 58 separate water sources. It starts at the Mãe de Água Velha in the municipality of Sintra and ends in the Amoreiras area, in the parish of Santo António in Lisbon. Along the way it passes through five municipalities: Amadora, Lisboa, Odivelas, Oeiras and Sintra. At its extremities are three main reservoirs. Two are catchment areas, the Mãe de Água Velha and the Mãe de Água Nova, and the third is the Mãe de Água das Amoreiras in Lisbon. The visible stretches are built of cut limestone blocks laid in regular rows. Where the channel runs underground, vents or skylights let in light and oxygen. This keeps the water safe and allows people to enter to clean the gutters and supervise the structure. Over the Alcântara valley these openings are more elaborate, with pilasters and pediments. The crossing is 941 metres long, and its arches reach 65 metres in height. It can be visited both inside and outside. The aqueduct worked continuously until 1967 and now serves as a tourist attraction. The route is open to visitors between Campolide and the Parque Florestal de Monsanto. It belongs to the Water Museum, run by EPAL, which also looks after the Mãe de Água das Amoreiras Reservoir. Opening hours are 10:00 to 17:30 from Tuesday to Sunday, with last entry at 17:00. It is closed on Mondays and public holidays. Guided tours must be booked, by phone on +351 218100215. Entry is 50% off with the Lisboa Card. The Amoreiras reservoir was designed in 1746 by the Hungarian architect Carlos Mardel to receive and distribute the water the aqueduct carries. A panoramic terrace at its top overlooks the city.

Venues.