Portugal and Spain

 

 

 

Statue of Dom Pedro I (Peter I) was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil. As King Dom Pedro IV, he reigned briefly over Portugal, where he also became known as "the Liberator" as well as "the Soldier King". Born in Lisbon, Pedro I was the fourth child of King Dom John VI of Portugal and Queen Carlota Joaquina, and thus a member of the House of Braganza. When the country was invaded by French troops in 1807, he and his family fled to Portugal's largest and wealthiest colony, Brazil.
The outbreak of the Liberal Revolution of 1820 in Lisbon compelled Pedro I's father to return to Portugal in April 1821, leaving him to rule Brazil as regent. He had to deal with challenges from revolutionaries and insubordination by Portuguese troops, all of which he subdued. The Portuguese government's threat to revoke the political autonomy that Brazil had enjoyed since 1808 was met with widespread discontent in Brazil. Pedro I chose the Brazilian side and declared Brazil's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822. On 12 October, he was acclaimed Brazilian emperor and by March 1824 had defeated all armies loyal to Portugal. A few months later, Pedro I crushed the short-lived Confederation of the Equator, a failed secession attempt by provincial rebels in Brazil's northeast.
 

The Santa Justa Lift, also called Elevador do Carmo (Carmo Lift)is an elevator, or lift, in the civil parish of Santa Justa. Situated at the end of Rua de Santa Justa, it connects the lower streets of the Baixa with the higher Largo do Carmo (Carmo Square).
 

 

 

The Convento da Ordem do Carmo (Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) is a former Catholic convent located in the civil parish of Santa Maria Maior. The medieval convent was ruined during the sequence of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and the destroyed Igreja do Carmo (Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) on the southern facade of the convent is the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the old city.
The old convent was eventually transformed into the headquarters of the Republican Guard (Guarda Republicana) following the Carnation Revolution of 1974. The church's stone roof collapsed after the earthquake and was never rebuilt, and only the pointed arches between the pillars have survived.