Santa Justa Lift

3 September 2025: the Glória derailment

On 3 September 2025 one of the two cars of the Ascensor da Glória, the funicular that runs from Praça dos Restauradores up to the Bairro Alto, left its rails on the way down and hit a building on the Calçada da Glória. Sixteen people died. Carris, the municipal operator that runs the three funiculars and the Santa Justa Lift, stopped all four the same day. The Glória, Lavra and Bica funiculars are cable machines from 1884, 1885 and 1892; the Santa Justa Lift is a vertical elevator from 1902 with a different mechanism, but it shares an operator, an age and an inspection regime, so it went into the same suspension.

The Carris note of 2 October 2025, which was still the most recent formal statement on carris.pt when we read it on 29 August 2026, says that once inspections are complete the reports go to a reassessment commission set up by Lisbon City Hall with experts from LNEC, the national civil engineering laboratory, the Instituto Superior Técnico and the Ordem dos Engenheiros, and that the moment for resuming operations will be decided after that validation. It names no date. The same note lists the replacement buses: 51E for the Glória, 19B for the Lavra, 22B for the Bica. There is no replacement bus for Santa Justa because the lift's two ends are 200 metres apart on foot.

The 2026 timelines: March said summer, August says January 2027

Two press reports move the date, and neither is on carris.pt. On 18 March 2026 CNN Portugal and TVI reported that the independent technical commission had cleared the Santa Justa Lift and the Bica funicular to return before the summer of 2026, on the grounds that Santa Justa had been re-motorised in 2024 and that the Bica's motors sit under the pavement rather than in the car. The summer came and the lift stayed shut. On 28 August 2026 Executive Digest, citing the weekly Nascer do Sol, reported that the lift should reopen in January 2027, that the Glória's replacement cars are due in Lisbon in 2029 and that the Lavra will follow the same route.

We print both because the gap between them is the useful fact: a date for this lift has slipped once already by at least six months. Carris's own statement on its equipamentos-historicos.carris.pt status site, as reported by RTP, is that the four closed machines will be returned to the city 'as soon as possible' while evaluation and adaptation work continues, and the only historic machine it lists as running is the Graça funicular, which reopened on 30 April 2026 and moved from EMEL to Carris. If you are planning a visit before spring 2027, plan as if the Santa Justa Lift will not be running, and check carris.pt the week you travel.

What 'closed' means on the ground

The tower is still there and still photogenic. The lower entrance on Rua de Santa Justa is shut, the cars are parked, and the walkway that joins the top of the tower to Largo do Carmo is closed at the tower end; whether the walkway itself is fenced at the Carmo end has varied through the closure, and Carris publishes nothing about it, so the section below gives you the fallback that does not depend on a gate. The visitlisboa.com page for the lift is headed 'closed temporarily' and still prints the pre-closure viewpoint hours of 09:00 to 21:00 and the €5 viewpoint price; take those as the figures that will apply on reopening, not as current.

Stand in Largo do Carmo with the roofless Carmo Convent on your left. At the far corner of the square, past the convent entrance, the walkway from the Santa Justa Lift comes in through an iron gate. When the lift ran, this was the free entrance to the platform: no ticket, no queue, the same panorama over the Baixa grid to the castle that the people who paid €6.20 and waited 45 minutes below were getting. The Rossio looks small from here, the Sé and the castle ramparts line up to the east, and the river fills the gap at the bottom of Rua Augusta.

With the lift suspended, the walkway has been closed at the tower end and at times gated at the Carmo end. Whichever gate you meet, the fallback is 30 metres away: the Terraços do Carmo, Álvaro Siza Vieira's stepped terraces opened in 2015 between the convent and the Armazéns do Chiado, look straight down the lift's own axis onto Rua de Santa Justa and the roofs of the Baixa. It is the shot most people wanted from the tower, minus the ironwork under your feet.

• Largo do Carmo walkway gate: the top of the lift, at street level, free when the lift ran
• Terraços do Carmo: the open fallback, steps beside the convent, no gate, no charge
• From the Baixa: Rua de Santa Justa to the foot of the tower for the photograph, then Rua do Carmo and Calçada do Sacramento up to the square, about 8 minutes

How to walk the lift's route on foot

The lift saved a climb of one short hill. From the foot of the tower on Rua de Santa Justa, walk south one block to Rua Garrett, turn right up the hill past the Armazéns do Chiado, and take Calçada do Sacramento on the right up to Largo do Carmo. It is eight minutes at a normal pace with about 30 metres of climb, and the Rua do Carmo stretch has the escalators inside the Armazéns do Chiado shopping centre as a rain option.

If you are heading for the Bairro Alto rather than the Chiado, carry on across Largo do Carmo and Largo da Trindade to Rua da Misericórdia; the whole climb from Rossio to the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara is bus 51E or about 15 minutes on foot.

Ouro-Carmo, 1899 to 1902

The lift was designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, the Portuguese engineer who also drew the Lavra, Glória and Bica funiculars, and it was first called the Ascensor Ouro-Carmo after the two streets it links. Construction started in 1899, the iron bridge to Largo do Carmo was inaugurated on 31 August 1901 and the lift itself opened in 1902. The first machinery was steam; it was converted to electric motors in 1907. The tower stands 45 metres high, the neo-Gothic ironwork is the reason people compare it to Eiffel's work, and the two wood-and-brass cabins that visitlisboa.com describes are the originals in form if not in every part. Wikipedia gives the cabin capacity as 24 passengers originally and 29 later; Carris publishes no current figure.

It was classified a National Monument on 19 February 2002, the same day as the three funiculars, and in 2024 it was re-motorised, which is the fact the technical commission leaned on in March 2026 when it said the lift could come back before the others.

Why it is famous

Three reasons, none of them the ride. It is the only vertical lift in a city of hills and the only one of Mesnier du Ponsard's four machines that looks like a building rather than a tram. It stands a full storey above the Pombaline roofline, so it is the landmark you steer by on Rua do Ouro and Rua Augusta.

And its top platform was, until September 2025, the cheapest 360-degree view in the centre: €5, or free from the Carmo side. When it reopens, the honest answer is that the view is the product and the walkway gives it away.

The on-board fare is €6.20 for up to two rides, and Carris sells it in the vehicle, not online and not in advance. The 24-hour Carris and Metro ticket at €7.25 does not include the lift or the funiculars; Carris says so in the tariff, and the price difference between the day ticket and the lift fare is the reason so many people find that out at the door. The Lisboa Card includes the ride but not the €5 viewpoint.

The viewpoint ticket is sold at the top and has never been sold online. None of this can be used today; it is here so that the reopening does not catch you with the wrong ticket.

For the Baixa-from-above shot, the Arco da Rua Augusta viewpoint is the closest thing to the lift platform and is open: €5 (about $5.85), daily 10:00 to 19:00 with last entry at 18:30, a lift to the second floor and then 74 steps, free with the Lisboa Card. It looks north up Rua Augusta to the Rossio and the castle where the lift looked south. For the castle-and-river panorama, the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara at the top of the Bairro Alto is free and reached by bus 51E from Restauradores, the Glória funicular's replacement, or a 15-minute walk. For the ride itself, the one historic machine Carris lists as running is the Graça funicular from the Mouraria up to the Graça hill, reopened on 30 April 2026; tram 28 is the other moving vantage point, €3.30 (about $3.85) on board or €1.72 on zapping, and it passes the foot of the Chiado hill on Rua da Conceição.

No tour on this site sells the lift, so nothing needs cancelling; the walking tour of Rossio, Chiado and Alfama climbs the same hill with a guide, and the tuk-tuk city tour does it seated. The Lisboa Card's lift benefit is dormant; its 2026 value is worked through on the Lisboa Card page.

• Arco da Rua Augusta viewpoint: €5, 10:00 to 19:00, last entry 18:30, 74 steps after the lift
• Terraços do Carmo and the Largo do Carmo walkway gate: free, the lift's own upper level
• Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara: free, bus 51E or 15 minutes on foot from Rossio
• Graça funicular: the one historic ascensor running, since 30 April 2026
• Castelo de São Jorge ramparts: €17 (about $20), the highest public platform in the centre — the castle page

The lower entrance is on Rua de Santa Justa, the short street that runs between Rua do Ouro and Rua Augusta one block south of the Rossio; the address printed by visitlisboa.com is Rua de Santa Justa, 1150 Lisboa. The nearest Metro stations are Baixa-Chiado on the blue and green lines, whose Rua do Crucifixo exit is two minutes away, and Rossio on the green line, four minutes. Tram 28 stops on Rua da Conceição, three minutes south. From Praça do Comércio it is an eight-minute walk up Rua Augusta. The upper entrance, the walkway gate, is on Largo do Carmo beside the convent; bus 51E stops on the square.

There is no step-free route to the top platform when the lift runs, since the platform is reached from the cabins by two spiral staircases; the walkway level from Largo do Carmo is flat. The Terraços do Carmo are steps. The Armazéns do Chiado escalators and lifts, open in shop hours, are the step-free way between the Baixa and Rua Garrett.

• Lower door: Rua de Santa Justa, off Rua do Ouro — closed since 3 September 2025
• Upper door: walkway gate, Largo do Carmo, beside the Carmo Convent
• Metro: Baixa-Chiado (blue, green) 2 minutes; Rossio (green) 4 minutes
• Bus 51E: Restauradores – Largo do Carmo loop, 07:00 to 21:30, on the 24-hour ticket

Give it five minutes, not an hour. Photograph the tower from Rua de Santa Justa on your way from Praça do Comércio up Rua Augusta, climb Rua Garrett and Calçada do Sacramento to Largo do Carmo, look down from the Terraços do Carmo, and go into the Carmo Convent with the time you saved; from there the Bairro Alto viewpoint is ten minutes further up. That is the second afternoon of the two-day itinerary, and the one-day plan does the same hill from the Rossio.

Every other closure that changes a 2026 visit, including the National Tile Museum, is listed on the things to do index, and the rest of the Lisbon guide starts from the homepage.