Rossio & Praça da Figueira

Lonely Planet review

The northernmost boundary of the Baixa is this pair of squares, a meeting place for Lisbon's multicultural population, filled with hustle, bustle, cafés and fountains. You are bound to cross these squares repeatedly during your visit - all roads seem to lead here.

In the middle of the Rossio is a statue, allegedly of Dom Pedro IV, after whom the square is named (but everyone calls it the Rossio). On the northern side of the square is the restored 1846 Teatro Nacional de Dona Maria II, topped by a statue of 16th-century playwright Gil Vicente.

The Rossio was once the scene of animal markets, fairs and bullfights. The theatre was built on the site of a palace in which the unholiest excesses of the Portuguese Inquisition took place from the 16th to the 19th century.