The pavement under your feet did not exist before 1998, and neither did most of what came before it.
Last reviewed 14 September 2026 · A two-minute read · 1856–now
The short answer
Passeio dos Heróis do Mar in Lisbon was laid in 1998 on ground that had spent most of the 20th century as industrial waterfront, home to a seaplane refuelling base and Portugal's first oil refinery, before Expo '98 razed the fifty-hectare site to build the World's Fair and the street itself.
1998 · Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
early 20th century to 1998
Nobody built a monument here. They built a refinery.
For most of the 20th century, this stretch of the Tejo River was working ground, not showground. Small industry crowded the bank, feeding Lisbon's port and its ships. Seaplanes bound across the Atlantic put down here to refuel, one of the few places in the country set up for it. Portugal's first oil refinery went up nearby, part of a fifty-hectare industrial belt that turned this shoreline gritty and loud.
None of it was built to last. By the later 20th century the docks were idle, the tanks empty, the seaplanes long gone. What remained was described as an industrial wasteland: concrete and rusted machinery on prime riverfront land.
Lisbon needed a reason to tear it all down. In 1998, it got one.
1998
A World's Fair paved this ground in six months
In 1998, Lisbon hosted the Expo '98 World's Fair. The fifty hectares of refinery ground and seaplane docks were razed to make room for it. The Passeio dos Heróis do Mar, the street you're standing on, was paved as part of that same push. City records say the surface has stayed substantially unchanged since.
A few steps away rose the Vasco da Gama Tower. It was a 160-meter lattice mast built for the fair. Its architects shaped it to look like a caravel's sail. Its base held the European Union's pavilion for the six months the Expo ran. When the fair closed, the tower sat empty for years. Its base was pulled down in 2007 to build a hotel. A restaurant later opened where the old viewing deck had been. It won a Michelin star within a year.
The refinery is gone. The seaplane slips are gone. What replaced them, the tower, the pavement, the fairground grid, is now the oldest thing this ground has.
1939 to 1959
Flying boats once refuelled on the Tejo nearby
Twenty minutes' walk from where you stand, engineers built a base for flying boats. The Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base opened in 1939, its slips angled into the Tejo so aircraft could land on the river itself. Passengers bound for Africa and the Americas came through here before transatlantic flight moved onto dry runways and longer wings. The base lasted twenty years. In 1959 it closed, and its slipways went the way of the refinery down the shore: abandoned, then forgotten under later development.
The buildings weren't the only thing this ground lost. So was its name.
1928 to 2013
A parish that governed this bank stopped existing
A mile inland, a parish called Moscavide governed this stretch of riverbank from 1928 onward. It had its own boundary, its own council, its own place in the country's parish rolls. In 2013, Portugal's government merged small parishes across the country to cut costs, and Moscavide stopped existing as its own unit. It became half of a new parish, Moscavide e Portela. The name survives on street signs and a church dedication. The jurisdiction it once named does not.
1998 to 2007
An empty tower base became a hotel restaurant
The tower built to anchor the fair did not escape the same habit. Its ground floor held the European Union's pavilion during Expo '98, packed with exhibits for six months. When the fair ended, developers tried to lease the space as offices. Nobody signed. The base sat empty for nearly a decade, a hollow plinth under a lattice mast shaped like a ship's sail. In July 2007, crews tore it down. A five-star hotel went up in its place, opening in 2012, with a restaurant later filling the old observation deck.
The pavement holds still, for now, over ground that has never held anything for long.
Open this place in Strata
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and it will dig the ground you are standing on instead, wherever that is.
Sourced records, high and medium confidence. Era background is marked as such.
Early modern
1650
A painting called "Four Large Cities in the World" pictured Lisbon alongside the era's other great metropolises, more than three centuries before this ground was built at all.
Era background — not a record of this tile · Wikidata / Commons
1756 (painted, depicting 1755)
The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, one of the deadliest disasters in European history, was captured on canvas the following year, though it struck the older city miles from this reclaimed riverbank.
Era background — not a record of this tile · O Terramoto de 1755 by João Glama Ströberle
Modern
1856
The Linha do Norte tracks running south of here were laid in 1856, making them far older than anything else in the immediate area, though well outside this reclaimed district.
This Portuguese public body, handling civil registration nationwide, traces its structure to a 1945 reform and operates a few hundred meters from here.
The ground beneath the Passeio dos Heróis do Mar was industrial land through most of the 20th century before being completely rebuilt for the 1998 World's Fair.
The singer known as Dina, who died in 2019, and the writer and filmmaker Ana Hatherly, who died in 2015, are both buried at Olivais Cemetery a couple kilometers away.
What was here before Passeio dos Heróis do Mar was built?
Industrial land occupied the site for most of the 20th century, including small port industry, a seaplane refuelling stop, and Portugal's first oil refinery, all cleared in 1998 to build Expo '98.
When was Passeio dos Heróis do Mar paved?
The street was paved in 1998 as part of the Expo '98 World's Fair infrastructure, and city records say the surface has stayed substantially unchanged since.
What happened at the Vasco da Gama Tower's base?
Built for Expo '98 to house the European Union's pavilion, the tower's base sat empty for years after the fair closed, was demolished in July 2007, and was replaced by a five-star hotel that opened in 2012, with a restaurant later filling the old observation deck.
What was the Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base?
It was a seaplane base on the Tejo, about a kilometre from this street, operating from 1939 to 1959 as a transatlantic refuelling stop before it closed and its slipways were abandoned.
Why did the parish of Moscavide stop existing?
In 2013 Portugal's government merged small parishes nationwide to cut costs, and Moscavide, which had governed this stretch of riverbank since 1928, was folded into a new combined parish called Moscavide e Portela.
