Parque Florestal de Monsanto, Lisbon

Monsanto Forest Park is Lisbon’s great wooded park, spread across the Serra de Monsanto. Its scale is remarkable: it covers 1000 hectares, roughly 10% of Lisbon’s municipality, across seven parishes. The paths and clearings support walking, outdoor activities, concerts, exhibitions, fairs, and adventurous sports, while viewpoints open towards Lisbon, the Tagus estuary, and the Atlantic Ocean.

This landscape was not always woodland. During the nineteenth century, the hill was used for grain fields and grazing, with windmills recording that agricultural past and quarries supplying stone for Lisbon’s expansion. The idea of planting the slopes for the city’s climate and scenery was put forward in 1868, but the park’s creation began with legislation issued in 1934.

In 1938, architect Francisco Keil do Amaral was hired to design it, while the forestry plan was prepared by Joaquim Rodrigo under Jorge Gomes de Amorim. Their approach kept the terrain’s rugged character, interrupting the woodland with essential routes and making use of its views. Look for the named viewpoints and the traces of old mills among the trees: they connect the recreational park you see today with the working landscape that came before it.