Lisbon (around Portuguese, Lisboa; pron. IPA ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal. These are a seat of the district of Lisbon. Lisbon has the people of 564,657 & its arethe has a people of 2,665,000.

Geography and Location

Lisbon is placed at 38°43' northward, 9°8' west, getting it the title westmost capital within mainland Europe. These are in a west of a united states, on a Atlantic Ocean coast at the point in which the flow of any stream Tagus flows into the Atlantic Ocean. A city occupies an vicinity of 84.Captain hicks km². These come significant to say that, unlike virtually all major cities, a city boundaries are narrowly defined in a historical city perimeter. This bring about to the being of many administratively defined cities in Lisbon, like Loures, Amadora & Oeiras, which as a matter of fact come a share of the metropolitan perimeter of Lisbon.

A historic centre of Lisbon is rest on heptad hills, making a few of the city's streets as well steep for automotive vehicle; a city is served by terzetto funicular services & of these elevator. A american side of the city is chiefly occupied per Monsanto Natural Park, one of the big urban parks within Europe by owning an metropolitan area about Ten square kilometre (about Quatern square miles).

Climate

Lisbon is one of a warmly European upper case. Spring & Summer months come ordinarily sunny & maximal temperatures more or even less or above Thirty °C when you took July & August, by owning online between 15 & 20 °C. Autumn & Winter come generally showery & windy, however sunny times are non uncommon either, a temperatures seldom fall following Phoebe °C, normally staying at an norm of Ten °C. Typical sunny hours by the month come 3300 h/y, & One c years by owning rain by the month.

Demographics

A people of the city is 564 657, & a area (Greater Lisbon) is 2 665 000. Lisbon is in the wider area referred to as Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, with the people of Three 500 000, constituting astir the third of the people of Portugal. A people density of the city itself is 6 606.Nine indweller by the kilometre^Deuce. It's required that a people of the Lisbon Area might increase to a bit of 4,Five million by 2015 & further than 5 million by 2020. It's a fastest increasing region around Portugal.

Culture
A heart of the city is the Baixa or even downtown, this metropolitan area of the city is existence considered for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. A Baixa is organized around a grid-formulas & the network of squares built fallowing the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which scraped a large section of mediaeval town. A São Jorge Castle and the Santa Maria Maior Cathedral are placed in one of a septet hills of Lisbon, to the east of the Baixa. A oldest district of the city is Alfama, close to a Tagus, which has processed it comparatively whole through the various earthquakes. More monuments include:

A Castle of São Jorge, atop the tallest hill of the city centre, Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square), Rossio Square, Restauradores Square, Elevador de Santa Justa, an elevator (lift) in Gothic revival style, built around 1900 to connect a Baixa & Bairro Alto. Jerónimos Monastery, Belém Tower A city of Lisbon is rich within architecture; Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Baroque, Traditional Portuguese, Modern and Post-Modern constructions can be detected everthing on top a city. A city is as well crossed by nifty avenue & monuments along these independent thoroughfares, particularly in a upper dominion; luminary among which are actually the Avenida da Liberdade, Avenidistrict attorney Fontes Pereira de Mello, Avenida Almirante Reis & Avenida da República. Leading light among a city's museums come:

A Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (National Museum of Ancient Art); the Museu dos Azulejos (Museum of Portuguese-style Tile Mosaics); the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, containing varied collections of ancient and modern art); a Oceanário de Lisboa (Lisbon Aquarium, largest around Europe); the Museu do Design at Centro Cultural de Belém (Design Museum); a Museu Nacional dos Coches (National Coach Museum, containing one of a big collections of royal coaches in the globe) & the Museu da Farmácia (Pharmacy Museum).

Lisbon opera, known as Teatro Nacional São Carlos, hosts a comparatively active culture agenda, primarily inside Autumn & Winter. More significant theatres & musical houses come a Centro Cultural de Belem, a Teatro D Maria & the Gulbenkian Foundation.

A monument to Christ a King [http://www.m-almada.pt/website/main.php?id=91 (Cristo Rei)] stands on the left side of the flow of any stream, around Almada. By owning open arms, overlooking a whole city, it resembles a Corcovado monument around Rio de Janeiro, and was built fallowing the World War II, as thanksgiving for Portugal existence spared a horrors & destruction of the war.

History
Neolithic era to the Roman Empire
In a period of the Neolithic a region was inhabited per equivalent peoples that sleep in more regions of Atlantic Europe, & come referred to as the Iberians. It built religious monuments known as megaliths. Dolmens and Menhirs still hold out in a countryside about the city. A Celts invaded after first millennium BC and they intermarried by having a Iberians, yielding birth to a Celtic-speaking local tribes like the Conii and Cempsi.

Archeological findings prove that a Phoenician trading post existed in the place now occupied per centre of the city since 1200 B.C.. A glorious natural harbour provided per estuary of the river Tagus made it the idealistic spot for the payout to provide foodstuffs to the Phoenician ships travelling to the tin islands (modern Isles of Scilly) and Cornwall. A freshly city was known as Alis Ubbo or even "safe harbour" within Phoenician. Besides sailing in a north, a Phoenicians besides probably took benefit of the situation of the freshly colony at the mouth of Iberia's big flow of any stream to trade sustaining a inland tribes for worthful metals. More crucial local products were salt, salted fish & a so widely renowned Lusitanian horses. Recently, Phoenician remains from either a eighth century B.C. were discovered below a Middle Age Sé de Lisboa or main Cathedral of the modern city.

Based on data from an Ancient Greek myth, the hero Ulysses founded the city fallowing he left Troy and departed to the Atlantic to escape the Greek coalition. Nonetheless a foundation of the city per Phoenicians predates any Greek presence in the area.

A Greeks knew it when Olissipo, the title it thought was from either Ulysses (over period, this was corrupted within vulgar Latin to Olissipona).

Roman Empire to the Moorish conquest
In a period of the Punic wars, after a kill of Hannibal (whose troops included members of a Conii) the Romans decided to deprive Carthage within its virtually all valuable possession, Hispania (or "Spain"" in English but in fact Spain and Portugal). After the defeat of the Carthaginians by Scipio Africanus in Eastern Hispania, the pacification of the West was led by Consul Decimus Junius Brutus. He obtained the alliance of Olissipo which sent men to fight alonside the Legions against the Celtic tribes of the Northwest. In return, Olissipo was integrated in the Empire under the name of Felicitas Julia, a Municipium Cives Romanorum, that is, it was granted self-rule over a territory going as far away as 50 kilometres (30 miles), exempted from taxes and its citizens given the privileges of Roman citizenship. It was integrated in the newly created province of Lusitania, whose capital was Emerita Augusta. The attacks by the Lusitanians during the frequent rebellions over the next couple of centuries weakened the city and a wall was built.

The Romans built a great Theatre in the time of Augustus; the Cassian Baths underneath the current Rua da Prata; Temples to Jupiter, Diana, Cybele, Tethys and Idae Phrygiae (an uncommon cult from Asia Minor), besides temples to the Emperor; a large necropolis under Figueira Plaza; a large Forum and other buildings such as insulae (multi-storied apartment buildings) existed in the area between the modern Castle Hill and Downtown. Many of these ruins were first unearthed during the middle Eighteenth century, when the recent discovery of Pompeii made Roman Archeology fashionable among Europe's upper classes.

Economically Olissipo was known for its garum, a sort of fish sauce, highly prized by the elites of the Empire, and exported in Amphorae to Rome and other cities. Wine, salt and its famously fast horses were also exported. The city came to be very prosperous through suppression of piracy and technological advances, which allowed a boom in the trade with the newly Roman Provinces of Britannia (particularly Cornwall) and the Rhine; and the introduction of higher civilization to the tribes living by the river Tagus in the interior of Hispania. The city was ruled by an oligarchical council dominated by two families, the Julii and the Cassiae. Petitions are recorded addressed to the Governor of the province in Emerita and to the Empreror Tiberius, such as one requesting help dealing with "sea monsters" alegedly responsible for shipwrecks. Roman Lisbon's most famous son was Sertorius which early in the history of the Roman Period led a large rebellion against Dictator Sulla. Among the majority of Latin speaking peoples lived a surprisingly large minority of Greek traders and slaves. The city was connected by a broad road to Western Hispania's two other large cities, Bracara Augusta (in the province of Tarraconensis, todays Portuguese Braga); and Emerita Augusta, the capital of Lusitania, today Merida in Spain.

In matters of religion, the city followed within the mainstream Roman Polytheist cults, but with special attention paid to the god of Medicina, Asclepius and the Moon goddess Cybele and a local lizard and snake divinity.

Olissipo like most great cities in the Western Empire was a centre for the dissemination of Christianity. Its first Bishop was Saint Gens, and there were several martyrs killed by the pagans during the great persecutions: Maxima, Verissimus and Julia are the most significant names.

The city was part of Roman Lusitania (although not the capital), was taken by Moors (it was called al-ʾIšbūnah (Arabic الأشبونة) under the Arabs in the Eighth Century (approximately 711), was reconquered 1147 by Dom Afonso Henriques, first king of Portugal (with the help of crusaders of the Second Crusade (see Siege of Lisbon). One of them, Gilbert of Hastings, was to became the first Bishop of the restored diocese of Lisbon. Lisbon has been the capital of Portugal since 1255.

The University of Lisbon was originally founded in 1290, transferred several times to Coimbra and refounded in 1911 after centuries of inactivity, incorporating reformed former colleges and other non-university schools of the city (such as the Escola Politécnica). Today there are 3 public universities in the city (UL, UTL and UNL) and a public university institute (ISCTE) - see list of universities in Portugal.

Fall of the Moors to the Portuguese Empire
Lisbon reached its peak of prosperity during the period of the Portuguese Empire in the 16th century. On 26 January 1531 the city was hit by an earthquake which killed thousands.

The XVI century marks the golden age for Lisbon. The city became the European hub of commerce with the Far East, while gold from Brazil also flooded into the city.

On 1 November 1755 Lisbon was destroyed by another earthquake, the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which killed 90,000 and destroyed eighty-five percent of the city [http://nisee.berkeley.edu/lisbon/index.html]. Voltaire wrote a long poem, "Poême tyre lupus erythematosus désastre first state Lisbonne", shortly afterwards, and mentioned the earthquake in his 1759 novel Candide (indeed, many argue that this critique of optimism was inspired by that earthquake). Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. also mentions it in his 1857 poem, ''The Deacon's Masterpiece, or The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay.

After the 1755 earthquake, the city was rebuilt largely according to the plans of the Marquês de Pombal; hence the designation of the lower town as Baixa Pombalina''. Instead of rebuilding the medieval town, Marques de Pombal decided to demolish the remains of the earthquake and rebuild the down town in accordance with modern urban rules, in what would now probably be considered at least controversial.

After Napoléon
Lisbon was the centre of a republican coup October 4-5,1910 and the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, which overthrew Antonio Salazar's successor Marcelo Caetano, the last prime-minister of the Portuguese Corporative Regime: the Estado Novo.

Events

In 1994, Lisbon was the European Capital of Culture.

Expo '98 was held in Lisbon. The timing was intended to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's sea voyage to India.

The Lisbon Agenda was an EU agreement on measures to revamp the EU economy signed in Lisbon at an EU summit in 1999, with progress well below original aspirations.

Lisbon hosted the Euro 2004 competition.

Every March the city hosts the world-famous Lisbon Half Marathon. One of the most attended events of its kind in the world.

Every June, there are some 5 days of popular street partying, in memory of Lisbon's patron saint Anthony of Padua (or Santo Antonio), a wealthy Portuguese bohemian who was made a saint after a life dedicated to the lost things, the poor, and travellers.

It regularly hosts countless other international events including various NATO, EU and other summits.

Economy

Lisbon, as the capital city of Portugal, has an economy concentrated on services. Most of the headquarters of multinationals operating in Portugal are concentrated in this city. Greater Lisbon is also heavily industrialized, especially the south bank of the Tagus river (Rio Tejo).

The Lisbon region is by far the wealthiest in Portugal: it produces 45% of the Portuguese GDP, and in per capita terms it is well above the rest of Portugal and above the European Union average. The Lisbon region is likely to stop receiving development aid from the EU in the coming years.

Transportation
Though the Lisbon public transportation network is extremely far-reaching and reliable, the city still suffers from endemic severe traffic problems.

Lisbon's transportation system has the Metro as its main artery. Connecting the city centre with the upper and eastern districts. Ambitious expansion projects will increase the network by almost one third, connecting the airport, and the northern and western districts. Bus, funicular and tram services have been supplied by the Companhia de Carris de Ferro de Lisboa (Carris), for over a century.

There are four suburban lines departing from Lisbon: the Cascais, Sintra and Azambuja lines as well as a fourth line to Setúbal crossing the Tagus river over the 25 de Abril bridge.

The city is connected to the far side of the Tagus by two important bridges: The April 25 Bridge, inaugurated (as the Ponte Salazar) August 6, 1966, and later renamed after the date of the Carnation Revolution. It is the longest suspension bridge in Europe and a replica (made by the same engineers) of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Vasco da Gama Bridge, inaugurated May 1998, is one of the longest in the world and the longest in Europe.

Lisbon is connected to its suburbs and the rest of Portugal by an extensive motorway network. There are three circular motorways around the city; the 2ª Circular, the CRIL and the CREL.

Colleges and Universities in Lisbon

There are 3 major state universities in Lisbon, the University of Lisbon, founded in 1911 (it is the oldest institution of higher education in Lisbon, its history backing to 1290), the Technical University of Lisbon and the New University of Lisbon, all of them providing degrees in the sciences, engineering, education and humanities. There is also a polytechnic institute, the Polytechnical Institute of Lisbon. Major private institutions of higher education include the renowned Portuguese Catholic University, as well as the [http://www.umoderna.pt/ Modern University of Lisbon], the Lusiada University, the [http://www.ulusofona.pt/ Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies] and the [http://www.universidade-autonoma.pt/ Autonomous University of Lisbon].

Miscellaneous

Two EU agencies are headquartered in Lisbon; the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries [Portuguese Commonwealth]), is also headquartered in Lisbon.

Lisbon is the original birthplace of fado music.

The remains of Luís de Camões, author of the epic Os Lusíadas, can be visited at the Jerónimos Monastery. The remains of other great Portuguese men and women can be visited at the National Pantheon.

Lisbon is served by Portela Airport, the largest in Portugal. Plans for construction of a new airport in Ota (50 km from Lisbon) have been around for years, with systematic postponements.

The football clubs SL Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal, playing in the highest Portuguese division and the European competitions are from Lisbon.

Buildings
Vasco-da-Gama-Tower Gare do Oriente

Prominent people born in Lisbon

Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) Pope John XXI, né Petrus Juliani (1215-1277) Antonio Vieira (1608-1697), Jesuit Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705), queen consort of King Charles II of England Richard William Church (1815-1890) Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) Amália Rodrigues (1920-1999), fado singer Mário Soares (born 1924), politician Paula Rego (born 1935), painter, illustrator and printmaker José Durão Barroso (born 1956), politician

Greater Lisbon

Like most big cities, Lisbon is surrounded by smaller towns/cities which depend on Lisbon for their economic and social life. It is estimated that close to one million people enter Lisbon every day from the outskirts. Among the most interesting neighbouring towns are Cascais, Estoril and Sintra, including the westernmost point in Continental Europe, the Cabo da Roca, as well as beautiful palaces, landscapes and cultural life.