Elevador de Santa Justa

Walking about in the city of Lisbon is actually hard work. The city is quite hilly and you would find yourself huffing and puffing in no time. I didn’t think that they would build Lisbon in such an area where you need to climb hills. It would have been understandable if the founders of the city first built it near flatter area but then expanded into the nearby hills. But it seems like some of the older parts of the city are also quite hilly so this theory doesn’t hold. Perhaps the city came into being after the castle was built, with everyone else having no choice but to build on the hilly terrain outside the castle.

I was exploring the shopping district of Baixa, thinking that if this place was for shopping, then maybe it is easier to walk in but it wasn’t the case. This isn’t just a problem I came up with. Apparently, the people of Lisbon have thought of a solution to this. To make it easier to climb up to the higher points in Baixa, lifts or elevators were built. This was all the way back in 1902. One of the more well known ones is the Elevador de Santa Justa. This elevator in built in the middle of the busy Baixa district and it rises to the top of the neighboring buildings. There is a platform on top where passengers will disembark and walk across a walkway to continue on their journey. In this sense, the Elevador de Santa Justa is part of the public transport infrastructure.

The elevator is made of iron and the design is quite industrial as it was common back then. These days there is a viewing platform on the top of the elevator. I didn’t get a chance to go up the lift. In fact, I didn’t even know that the thing was when I first saw it. I knew it was an elevator but it was an elevator that seem to go nowhere. Turns out it was an elevator to help people climb the steep hills. This is probably one of the more unique structures I have seen in a city. Buses and trains I understand but an elevator as part of the public transport system? I don’t think I have heard of that before.

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