Santa Justa Lift

The Santa Justa Lift, also called Carmo Lift, is an elevator, or lift, in the civil parish of Santa Justa, in the historical city of Lisbon, Portugal. 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).Since its construction, the Lift has become a tourist attraction for Lisbon as, among the urban lifts in the city, Santa Justa is the only remaining vertical (conventional) one. Others, including Elevador da Glória and Elevador da Bica, are actually funicular railways, and the other lift constructed around the same time, the Elevator of São Julião, has since been demolished.HistoryThe hills of Lisbon have always presented a problem for travel between the lower streets of the main Baixa and the higher Largo do Carmo (Carmo Square)., In order to facilitate the movement between the two, the civil and military engineer Roberto Arménio presented a project to the Lisbon municipal council in 1874. A similar project was suggested in 1876, that included rail-lines that would be pulled by animals up an inclined plane.In May 1882 founder and representative of the Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa, Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, petitioned the city council for permission to explore alternative plans for constructing an inclined transport moved by mechanical means. On 1 June 1882, Mesnier, a Porto-born engineer of French parentage, was granted a licence to proceed.