LisbonLisboa

The steep hill above the Tagus estuary drew settlers long before Portugal existed. Phoenician and Greek traders used the natural harbour, and the Romans made Olisipo a town of some rank under Julius Caesar. After the fall of Rome, Visigoths held it briefly, and from 714 it became al-Ushbuna, a Muslim city with a citadel, a mosque on the site of today's cathedral, and a walled quarter running down to the river.

On 25 October 1147, Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, took Lisbon after a siege in which crusaders from England, Flanders and the Rhineland helped him. The city stayed at the edge of the Christian world for a century, and in 1255 the court moved here from Coimbra, making Lisbon the capital. Its port grew with Atlantic trade, and by the 15th century sailors were probing the African coast.

Vasco da Gama left the Tagus for India in July 1497, and the sea route he opened brought spices, gold and enormous wealth. Manuel I built the Ribeira Palace on the waterfront and ordered the Jerónimos Monastery in 1501. Spain took the crown in 1580 and lost it in 1640, and in the 18th century gold from Brazil paid for churches, an aqueduct and an opera house. Then, on 1 November 1755, came the earthquake, and much of that city fell.

The rest of the story is one of decline and recovery. Napoleon's army entered in 1807 and the court fled to Brazil; the monarchy ended in 1910 after the murder of King Carlos and his heir in 1908. From 1933 the Estado Novo dictatorship ran the country from Lisbon, until the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 ended it without a war. Portugal joined the European Community in 1986, and Expo 98 rebuilt the eastern waterfront.

Since 2010, Lisbon has become one of the most visited capitals in Europe. The change brought investment and life back to the old lanes, and it also pushed up rents and pushed out residents. Every visitor is part of that story now, which is worth remembering when you choose where to sleep and eat.

Alfama, the oldest quarter, takes its name from an Arabic word usually explained as "baths" or "springs". It sits on rock that stood through the 1755 quake, which is why its lanes are still crooked and narrow. Fishermen's families and washerwomen lived here for centuries, and it still has a village feel: laundry, sardine grills in June, small fado houses, and the tiled viewpoint of Santa Luzia.

Mouraria, on the other side of the castle hill, was the Moorish quarter assigned after 1147. It is now a mix of Portuguese pensioners and migrants from Asia and Africa, and it is often named as the birthplace of fado, through the singer Maria Severa in the 19th century. A walk here shows the city as it is lived in, not as it is sold.

Baixa, the lower town, was the trading heart of Lisbon and was rebuilt after 1755 on a strict grid. Streets are named after the guilds that worked on them: Rua do Ouro for goldsmiths, Rua da Prata for silversmiths, Rua dos Sapateiros for shoemakers. Rossio, the square at its north end, has a wave-patterned pavement in black and white stones and has been the meeting place of the city for centuries.

Chiado and Bairro Alto sit on the western hill. Chiado has been the intellectual and shopping quarter since the 18th century, with the café A Brasileira, a bronze statue of the poet Fernando Pessoa on its terrace and the ruined Carmo Convent nearby. Bairro Alto was laid out in the 16th century and is now a grid of small bars that fill from about 22:00. Príncipe Real, higher up, is a calm 19th-century district of villas and a garden.

Belém, six kilometres west, was where ships left for the ocean. Its monasteries and towers were built with the wealth of the spice trade. Further east, Parque das Nações is the modern waterfront created for Expo 98, with the Oceanário and a cable car.

The earthquake of 1755 struck on All Saints' Day, about 09:40 in the morning, when churches were full and candles were lit. A tsunami followed, and fires burned for days. Estimates of the dead run into the tens of thousands, and much of the lower city and the royal palace on the river were destroyed. Alfama, on firmer ground, and the higher hills suffered less.

The chief minister, the Marquis of Pombal, acted fast. He cleared the rubble and laid out Baixa as a straight grid of streets of equal height, ending at a great square, the Praça do Comércio. The buildings used a timber frame, called gaiola or cage, built to flex in a quake; the story is told that soldiers marched around models to test them. The result is the earliest large-scale attempt at earthquake-resistant design in Europe.

Other layers survive. The Romanesque cathedral, begun after 1147, looks like a fortress. The Manueline style of the early 16th century, seen at the Jerónimos Monastery and the Tower of Belém, decorates stone with ropes, armillary spheres and sea creatures, marking the wealth of the discoveries. The Carmo Convent is left roofless as a memorial.

Azulejos, painted tiles, tie the city together. The Moorish tradition of tile came through Spain, and by the 17th and 18th centuries blue-and-white panels covered churches and palaces. Today tiles cover house fronts in every district, and the National Tile Museum shows the history in a convent. The pavements are also a craft: calçada portuguesa is a mosaic of small black basalt and white limestone blocks, laid by hand.

Modern additions are visible too: the iron Santa Justa Lift of 1902, the 25 de Abril Bridge of 1966, and the Expo 98 buildings. Lisbon rebuilds rather than replaces, and the result is a city of stacked styles. When you walk, look up: the first floor is often a shop, the upper floors carry tiled fronts and iron balconies, and the roofs show the timber and terracotta that hold the whole thing together.

Lisbon's cooking is shaped by fish, bread, wine and the empire. The sea gave sardines and clams; the wheat fields of the Alentejo gave bread; the ships brought spices, sugar, coffee and chilli from Asia, Africa and Brazil. The result is a cuisine of simple materials cooked well and of strong flavours in small amounts.

Salt cod, bacalhau, is the national dish: fished off Newfoundland and Norway, salted and dried, then cooked in many ways. A common saying claims one recipe for every day of the year. Sardines are the summer treat, grilled over charcoal on a slice of bread in June, the month of the city's patron saint, Santo António.

The pastel de nata is the best-known sweet. Monks at the Jerónimos Monastery made custard tarts, and after the religious orders were dissolved in 1834 the recipe was sold to a nearby business, which opened as Pastéis de Belém in 1837. The recipe is kept secret, and Lisbon has since produced dozens of imitations, some of them very good.

The bica, a short strong coffee drunk at the counter, and the ginjinha, a cherry liqueur sold at bars near Rossio since the 19th century, complete the ritual. Wine matters too: vinho verde from the north, red from the Douro and Alentejo, and port. Lisbon's tascas, small family taverns, serve a daily dish, a prato do dia, at low prices, and a couvert of bread and olives charged if you eat it.

In the last decade the city has added a new layer: a food hall in the old Ribeira market, chef-led restaurants in Chiado and Príncipe Real, and a wave of Michelin stars. The cheapest lunch and the most expensive dinner are now both easy to find. A practical rule holds across all of it: eat the daily dish at midday when the kitchen is fresh, save the seafood for a place with a queue of locals, and keep the sweet tart for the walk between the two.

June is the month that Lisbon changes its shape. The Festas de Lisboa run all month and peak on the night of 12 June and the holiday on 13 June, the day of Santo António, born in Lisbon in the late 12th century and the city's favourite saint. Streets in Alfama, Mouraria and Graça are decorated with paper garlands, sardines are grilled on the pavements, and neighbourhoods compete in a parade of marchas populares on Avenida da Liberdade.

A small pot of basil, the manjerico, is given with a paper poem in June. Weddings of the poor, once arranged by the church on this day, have become a civic tradition. The crowds are dense, rooms are more expensive, and the best plan is to visit the lanes in the afternoon and to book a table for dinner well in advance.

25 April, Liberty Day, marks the Carnation Revolution of 1974. A parade fills Avenida da Liberdade, and red carnations are worn in coats. The events of that day are still a matter of personal memory for many older residents.

The rest of the year has its own dates. Carnival, Easter processions, and 10 June, Portugal Day, are national holidays. The Feast of Saint Vincent in January honours the city's patron, whose relics, by tradition, were carried to Lisbon in a boat guarded by ravens, which appear on the city's coat of arms. Music festivals such as NOS Alive in July and the biennial Rock in Rio Lisboa draw large crowds, and the Web Summit technology conference fills hotels every November.

For a visitor, the calendar matters for logistics: book rooms early for June, August and New Year; expect closures on holidays; and if your trip overlaps a festival night, take it as a chance to see Lisbon at its most social. Go with a plan for the crowds: arrive early, carry little, agree a meeting point in case you lose your group, and leave enough time to walk home, because streets close and cars cannot get through.

Lisbon runs at a slower pace than most European capitals. Cafés fill from 08:00 with people drinking a bica standing at the counter. Lunch is long, dinner starts around 20:00, and the bars of Bairro Alto fill after 22:00. In summer the city lives outdoors, on the terraces of the miradouros, viewpoints where locals and visitors sit with a drink at sunset.

Fado is the city's music: a sung form, accompanied by Portuguese guitar, about longing and fate, a feeling known as saudade. It grew in the port districts of Alfama and Mouraria in the 19th century and was listed by UNESCO as intangible heritage in 2011. Hear it in a small house where the singers are neighbours, and keep silent during the songs.

The city is defined by its hills and trams. The yellow Tram 28 rattles through Graça, Alfama and Baixa; Tram 15 runs west to Belém; and funiculars lift people up Glória, Bica and Lavra. They are useful and crowded, and they suit those who are patient.

Football matters. Benfica and Sporting are the two big Lisbon clubs, and the derby fills bars and cafés across the city. The 25 de Abril Bridge, opened in 1966 and called after the dictator until 1974, links Lisbon to the south bank and the statue of Cristo Rei, modelled on the one in Rio.

Tourism has changed everyday life. Housing in the old districts is expensive, and many residents have moved out. What visitors can do is small but real: eat in neighbourhood tascas, buy from local shops, avoid short-let blocks that empty the lanes, and treat the tram as public transport rather than a ride. Learn a few words of Portuguese, starting with bom dia and obrigado (obrigada if you are a woman), which are noticed and answered with warmth.