Panteão Nacional

The Portuguese have a phrase — "obras de Santa Engrácia" — that means a project that never gets finished. It comes from this building. The Church of Santa Engrácia, now the National Pantheon, took 284 years to complete. Construction started in 1681 after the previous church was destroyed in a storm. Work proceeded in fits and starts, hampered by funding problems, political upheaval, and what appears to have been a genuine curse: the original church was desecrated in 1630 when a young man named Simão Solis was falsely accused of stealing the sacrament. He was executed, and supposedly cursed the church as he died. After that, nothing went right with the building for nearly three centuries.

The dome wasn't finished until 1966, when the Salazar regime finally closed the ceiling — making this one of the longest construction projects in European history. The result is a magnificent Baroque interior with walls of pink, gray, and white marble, a soaring dome with an oculus that floods the space with light, and a terrace on the roof that offers one of the best panoramic views in Lisbon. The terrace is uncrowded because most tourists don't know this building exists, let alone that you can climb to the top.

The Pantheon function came in 1916, when the republic designated it as the final resting place for Portugal's greatest citizens. Inside you'll find cenotaphs (empty symbolic tombs) for Vasco da Gama, Henry the Navigator, and Pedro Álvares Cabral, as well as actual tombs of fado legend Amália Rodrigues, novelist Aquilino Ribeiro, and footballer Eusébio. Yes, the greatest Portuguese footballer of the 20th century rests in the same building as the explorers who built the empire. The pantheon sits at the edge of the Feira da Ladra flea market, surrounded by vendors selling used books and antique tiles, creating one of the most atmospheric spots in the city.