The Castle hill, one of the seven famous in Lisbon, has been gaining mechanical equipment to improve pedestrian accessibility, in an area of intense heritage, historical, and cultural value and interest. The new Sé Elevator, with free access between Campo das Cebolas and Sé, is the most recent infrastructure with this purpose.
The elevator can be picked up at Portas do Mar, one of Campo das Cebolas' "mysterious arches". Crossing it, you reach number 38 on Rua Afonso de Albuquerque, where the entrance is. There is a security guard at the door and video surveillance in the space, but access is free. Just go straight ahead through a corridor and call the elevator.
There are "two floorsthat is, an intermediate stop that is precisely at the top of the so-called Staircases of Portas do Marwhich are precisely on the side of the street where you take the elevator. As there is a café with an esplanade at the top of those stairs, it seems that when you exit the elevator you are going directly to that commercial space. But no: it is just a small terrace, which, depending on the time of year, may not always be there.
The top of the elevator is right next to the Lisbon Cathedral, next to a restaurant and its terrace. The elevator door is not visible to those looking at the Cathedral from the front, so the equipment may go unnoticed and appear to be just a small prismatic volume on the surface.
The Sé Elevator is available between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and is managed by EMEL, as are the other equipments that make up the so-called General Plan for Smooth and Assisted Accessibility to the Castle Hill of the Lisbon City Hall. This Plan should already be in place in full swing in 2016but to date it now integrates four pieces of equipment. Besides the Sé Elevator:
- o Castle ElevatorIt was inaugurated in August 2013 and is actually divided into two elevators: one between Rua dos Fanqueiros and Rua da Madalena, and another that connects the Chão do Loureiro Market, just next door, to the Costa do Castelo;
- elevator between Norberto de Araújo Street and the Santa Luzia ViewpointIt opened in June 2015;
- the Health Stairs, an escalator between Praça do Martim Moniz and Rua Marquês de Ponte de Lima, inaugurated in October 2018.
O General Plan for Smooth and Assisted Accessibility to the Castle Hill is structured in five routes: the Sé Route, the Graça Route, the Alfama Route and the Mouraria Route. Each of these routes includes elevators or escalators, but is also defined by streets, viewpoints and other points of interest. The Sé Route, for example, includes the Castle Elevator and this new Sé Elevator, but a street/tunnel will be created between Largo da Sé and Rua de São Mamede, where there will be a new elevator that will connect to Rua da Saudade; a new viewpoint will be established here.
The General Plan for Soft and Assisted Accessibility to the Castle Hill was designed by the Bugio architecture studio and architects João Favila, João Simões, Pedro Domingos and Rui Mendes, in 2009. It can be consulted at this link.
