This beautiful structure, located on , is the Lisbon City Hall. The City Hall has a troubled past. The original City Hall, built after the earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755, was razed by a fire in 1863. That building’s replacement, which you see here, was seriously damaged by a fire in 1993. After the fire, the current City Hall underwent major restoration to repair the damage caused by the fire and to bring this building, which has gone through several modifications since it’s construction, closer to the original plan.
There are three things of interest here. First, I’m a big fan of Portuguese pavement and the pavement in City Square is especially beautiful. Second, the monument in front of the City Hall is topped by an armillary sphere which I knew nothing about until last week. If you didn’t see that post, an armillary sphere is a spherical framework of rings representing longitude and latitude and was used by Portuguese navigators during the Age of Discovery. Finally, the four round windows above the second floor are called oculi, which were a common feature of Neoclassical architecture.
Mostly True 