the arch that took one hundred and fourteen years to finish
It's the monumental gateway to the lower town from the Tagus side: the triumphal arch connecting Praça do Comércio to Rua Augusta, with the Latin inscription VIRTVTIBVS MAIORVM at the top ("To the Virtues of the Forefathers, that it may serve as a lesson to all"). The project was drawn up in 1759, as part of the Pombaline reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake, with the original design by architect Eugénio dos Santos. But execution was painfully slow: until 1843 the arch only reached the cornice, with the colonnades standing since 1815, waiting to be crowned. Only in 1873, after a new competition won by architect Veríssimo José da Costa, was the work finally complete. A hundred and fourteen years from project to completion.
The sculptural decoration is all at the top. Up there, Célestin Anatole Calmels's group represents Glory crowning Genius and Valour. Further down, in a lateral plane, are four figures from Portuguese history sculpted by Vítor Bastos: the Marquis of Pombal, Vasco da Gama, Viriato and Nuno Álvares Pereira. On the sides of the arch, also by Vítor Bastos, are allegories of the rivers Tagus and Douro, which delimit the territory where the Lusitanians allegedly lived. The whole reading is programmatic: the Pombaline state wanted an arch that said, in stone, which national narrative justified the rebuilding of the city.
Since 2013 it's been possible to climb to the top. You enter through a side door on Rua Augusta, take a lift, then two flights of steep spiral stairs, and you reach the terrace where the large sculptures are. The view is 360 degrees, with Praça do Comércio at your feet (you can see the equestrian statue of D. José I from above), the Tagus opening to the south, the castle of São Jorge on the hill to the east, and Rua Augusta stretching up to Rossio with its Portuguese paving pattern. Halfway up, in the Sala do Relógio, there's a small exhibition on the history of the arch and on the building's clock, which still runs on its original mechanism.
the whole scene
- triumphal arch planned in 1759, completed in 1873
- original design by Eugénio dos Santos, crowned by Veríssimo José da Costa
- sculptures by Célestin Anatole Calmels at the top, Vítor Bastos below
- viewpoint open to the public since 2013, with lift and spiral staircase
- 360-degree view over Praça do Comércio, the Tagus and the Pombaline lower town
