Praça do Comércio

Lonely Planet review

The city's grandest square is Praça do Comércio, an architectural fanfare of Portugal's wealth and might. All visitors arriving by river or sea used to disembark here, and the huge square still feels like the city's portal, with Joaquim Machado de Castro's bronze equestrian statue of Dom José I; the 18th-century, arcaded government ministries along three sides; and Verissimo da Costa's Arco da Victória, the arch opening onto Rua Augusta. The stock exchange was once on the southeastern corner. Before the destructive 1755 earthquake, the praça (town square) was called Terreiro do Paço (Palace Sq), after the royal Palácio da Ribeira that overlooked it until the morning of 1 November 1755. In 1908 the square witnessed the death of the monarchy, when anarchists assassinated Dom Carlos I and his son.