Lisbon · History
The Cartographer’s Lie
A missing map, a jealous navigator and streets that refuse to stay straight.
Lisbon
- Duration
- 2.5 hrs
- Distance
- 4.2 km
- Clues
- 8
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Price
- €18
The story
In 1554 a royal cartographer named Álvaro da Ponte was asked to redraw the mouth of the Tagus. He did it beautifully, and he did it wrong. The map went missing before anyone could ask why. Your route begins where his workshop stood — and follows the streets he kept folding out of the plan.
Expect tiled courtyards, a church with two front doors and a viewpoint where the river finally agrees with the drawing. The walking is gentle, but Alfama is Alfama: there are stairs, and there is no point pretending otherwise.
On the way
- 01The courtyard with a 16th-century correction hidden in the tiles
- 02A church door that opens onto the wrong street
- 03The miradouro where the map finally makes sense