Elevador de Santa Justa, Lisbon

Santa Justa is a public lift, built as an ornate iron tower that carries you between Lisbon’s lower Baixa streets and Largo do Carmo. The structure rises about 45 metres and contains two passenger cabins, with a metal walkway linking the upper level to Carmo. [The lift spans seven stories and its cabins were designed for 24 passengers each, later updated to 29.]

It is the city’s only surviving conventional vertical urban lift; the other famous ascensors are funicular railways. [Construction began in 1901, and the lift opened to passengers on 10 July 1902.] Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard designed the project, and the tower’s ironwork draws on Neo-Gothic forms; its Art Nouveau character is also recorded.

[The lift originally worked by steam before changing to electric power in 1907.] Look at the pointed arches, the delicate iron patterning, and the enclosed cabins with their wood, mirrors, and windows. The narrow spiral staircases lead to a lookout with views towards the Baixa, the Tagus, São Jorge Castle, and the Carmo ruins. This is both working transport and a striking monument to the mechanical ambitions of its age.