Lisbon

Wooden cars brought in during the 1930s still haul themselves over the hills between Graca and Campo de Ourique. Board at a terminus if you want a seat, since by afternoon standing riders fill the car right up to the doors.

Finished in 1519 to guard the river mouth, the tower stands with water around its base at high tide. One narrow stair serves every floor, so those going up wait at the bottom until the people above have come down.

Spice trade taxes paid for a building that took close to a century, and rope and coral are cut into every column. The cloister needs a ticket, while the church nave only asks that you stand in the queue.

This quarter held together through the earthquake of 1755, so the streets keep their old width and their old bends. Washing hangs across the alleys, and in the evening fado leaks out of doorways left open.

Moorish builders raised this hilltop wall and a king took it in the twelfth century. A circuit of the ramparts shows how the city falls away toward the river, and peacocks walk the courtyard as you go.

A 45m iron lift has joined the lower Baixa to Chiado above since 1902. The queue for a ticket runs long, though walking in from Carmo square at the top lets you reach the viewing deck on its own.

A textile works under the bridge was left standing and only its insides turned into bookshops and studios. A market fills the yard on Sunday mornings, and the tall ceilings keep the halls cool even in summer.

A former convent holds nothing but tiles, five centuries of them hung in order of date. At the end of the upper floor a panel 23m long lays out the Lisbon waterfront as it stood before the earthquake.

Half of a produce hall that has traded since 1892 was handed over to food counters. Long shared tables run down the middle, and a group can sit together with plates collected from several different stalls.

The highest terrace in town sits one block off the usual route, so a bench still comes free in the evening. From under the pines the castle and the river sit in one frame.

The royal palace stood on this riverside square until the 1755 earthquake, so locals still call it Terreiro do Paco, the palace yard. Yellow arcades close three sides, and the top of the Rua Augusta Arch on the north side looks over the square and the river.

Raised on the river in 1960, 500 years after Prince Henry died, this stone prow carries navigators, missionaries and poets in a line behind him. The marble world map in the pavement, a gift from South Africa, only reads whole from the top.

Belem's art, architecture and technology museum, opened 2016, is a low curve clad in white tiles. Its roof is a sloping walkway you can climb for the river view without seeing a show. The red-brick power station next door shares the ticket.

The art amassed by Gulbenkian, an Armenian oil magnate who died in Lisbon. One route leads from Egyptian antiquities to Rembrandt and a room of Rene Lalique jewellery. Ponds and ducks fill the garden around it, where office workers eat lunch.

An aquarium built over the water for the 1998 Expo in Parque das Nacoes. Windows on two floors wrap one huge central tank, so sharks and sunfish pass at several heights. The upper corner tank holds a pair of sea otters, where children linger longest.

A small terrace over Alfama's roofs and the river, its pillars wrapped in climbing flowers. One tile panel on the wall shows Praca do Comercio as it looked before the earthquake. Tram 28 stops right in front, and Portas do Sol square is a few steps on.

A two-level garden terrace at the edge of Bairro Alto, facing Sao Jorge Castle across the Baixa. A tile map on the railing names the buildings in view, so you can match each one. Many people stand at sunset with a drink from the kiosk.

A Gothic church whose roof fell in the 1755 earthquake and was never replaced. You walk under bare arches, and the old altar end holds an archaeology museum. On Largo do Carmo outside, the dictatorship surrendered during the revolution of 25 April 1974.

The name means the thief's fair; it spreads over Campo de Santa Clara behind the Pantheon. It runs Tuesdays and Saturdays only, and early morning has the most stock. Loose tiles, old stamps and used records lie on cloths, and every price is open to haggling.

Santa Engracia church was begun in the 17th century and only got its dome in 1966. Portuguese still call an endless job obras de Santa Engracia. Fado singer Amalia Rodrigues lies here, and the terrace outside the dome looks over the river and Alfama.

Begun after Lisbon was retaken in 1147, its two towers are as thick as a fort's. It survived the earthquake but was patched so often that Romanesque and Gothic now mix. Digs in the cloister courtyard uncovered a Roman street and Islamic-era buildings.

A 16th-century grid of narrow lanes, and by day a quiet residential district. At night tiny bars open and drinkers spill out with their glasses, so the street becomes the bar. It joins Chiado below, so people walk up after dinner.

A Christ statue raised in 1959 on the Almada hill across the river, modelled on Rio de Janeiro's. Ferry from Cais do Sodre to Cacilhas, then take a bus. From the pedestal platform, the long Tagus suspension bridge and downtown Lisbon line up together.

Portugal's largest collection of old art, in a 17th-century palace. Bosch's Temptation of St Anthony and the Saint Vincent Panels by Nuno Goncalves are the stars, and Japanese Namban screens show Portuguese traders. The back garden cafe overlooks the docks.

An 18th-century stone channel carried across the Alcantara valley to bring water into the city. It survived the 1755 earthquake, and its tall arches now stride over a motorway. A walkway runs along the top, with the traffic far below.

Fado's history house, on Largo do Chafariz de Dentro below Alfama. Photos and records of old singers hang beside round-bodied Portuguese guitars, and headphones let you pick songs. UNESCO recognised fado as world intangible heritage in 2011.