Fotos

The Lavra Funicular

Lisbon’s steeply sloping terrain has always been a serious problem for the transport of people and goods between the high and the low-lying areas. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Company was using “American-style” trams (using animals to draw the carriages which were on rails) but not even these could answer the problem satisfactorily
When mechanical traction became available, a company was set up to solve the problem - the Lisbon Mechanical Lift Company (Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa).
Its aim, in the words of its articles, was (...) to build and operate mechanical lifts, on sloping terrain, propelled by mechanical means.
The first to see the light of day was the Calçada do Lavra, which ran from the Largo da Anunciada to the Travessa do Forno do Torel.