A riverside plaza in Parque das Nações
Vasco da Gama Tower, in Lisbon's Parque das Nações, rose beside the Praça do Tejo in 1998, the year Expo '98 replaced an oil refinery, a slaughterhouse and a 340-hectare rubbish tip along this stretch of the Tagus. The 160-metre tower, shaped like a ship's mast and sail, remains the tallest structure in the city.
A Chilean mural and a tower mark the fairground
You're standing near the Praça do Tejo, a riverside plaza in Lisbon's Parque das Nações district. Just north of you is a giant tiled mural called Painel "Haveráguas". It measures 13 feet by 21 feet. The government of Chile gave it to Lisbon for Expo '98, the world's fair held here that year. The Chilean artist Roberto Matta designed it, full of surreal, dreamlike images of water. Two craftsmen, F. Ariztía and C. Olivares, turned his design into tile in 1998, and a Lisbon ceramics factory called Viúva Lamego fired the piece using majolica, an old technique for painting on tin-glazed earthenware. A signature in the corner still names the artists. Close by stands the Vasco da Gama Tower, built the same year, shaped like a ship's mast and sail.
A French climber scaled the tower by hand
The tower's observation deck and its restaurant both closed in October 2004. Two years later, a French urban climber named Alain Robert scaled the outside of the tower by hand. A Portuguese phone company, Optimus, sponsored the climb as a marketing stunt.
A luxury hotel replaced the tower's old base
In 2007, crews tore down the three-story base at the tower's foot. Portuguese architect Nuno Leónidas designed a replacement: a 20-floor luxury hotel with 178 rooms. It opened in 2012 under the name Myriad.
A Michelin star arrived at the top of the tower
In 2018, a new restaurant called Fifty Seconds took over the old observation deck, run by chef Martín Berasategui. It earned a Michelin star within its first year. The tower itself still stands 160 meters tall, the tallest structure in Lisbon. Its base follows the Tagus shoreline like the bow of a ship, with panoramic elevators climbing through the "mast" toward the restaurant and viewing platform above.
The tower's glass elevators and sail-shaped frame still rise over the Praça do Tejo and the Tagus below.
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