Afonso de Albuquerque Square () is a public square in the Belém district of the city of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

History

The square is located in front of Belém Palace, an early 18th-century palace that nowadays serves as residence for the

President of Portugal The president of Portugal, officially the president of the Portuguese Republic (, ), is the head of state and highest office of Portugal. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister ...

. The square is named after the Second Governor of

Portuguese India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...

, and offers the best views of Belém Palace. It has a beautiful monument, in neo-

Manueline The Manueline (, ), occasionally known as Portuguese late Gothic, is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese architectural style originating in the 16th century, during the Portuguese Renaissance and Age of Discoveries. Manueline architecture inco ...

style, by artists ''Silva Pinto'' and ''Costa Mota tio'', inaugurated in 1902. The monument carries a bronze statue of Afonso de Albuquerque and has reliefs about his life. The site of the square used to be a harbour, built in 1753. In 1807,

Queen Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...

, Prince John VI and the royal family fled Lisbon from this harbour to

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, in

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, to escape the Napoleonic troops which had invaded Portugal. Notable buildings include Belém Palace and the Nacional Coach Museum. Squares in Lisbon Belém (Lisbon) {{Lisbon-geo-stub