One of the best things to see in Lisbon is undoubtedly the iconic São Jorge castle.
Not only does it have the best viewpoint in Lisbon, you can also find a ton of interesting history, beautiful peacocks, and an archaeological excavation site within São Jorge’s castle walls.
Some people say that Castelo de São Jorge is fake and underwhelming because a lot of it has been recreated. However, we completely disagree! We actually think that it’s one of the best and and most important attractions you can visit in all of Lisbon. São Jorge Castle is a National Monument that’s full of history, and it would be a shame to skip it on your trip to Lisbon.
We’ve been lucky enough to visit the castle in Lisbon twice, and we found it equally exciting both times!
That’s why we’ve decided to dedicate a full travel guide to Lisbon’s amazing castle – here we’ll go through important historical events, practical information such as tickets and opening hours, plus we’ll share our own experience and try to set the expectations for your future visit.
We sincerely hope you’ll enjoy this blog post about an amazing attraction in one of our favorite cities in the world – Lisbon.
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About Lisbon’s São Jorge Castle
Before I dive into our own experience of Lisbon’s Castle, and what you can expect from it, we’re going to share some information about the place. So if you’re going to visit Castelo de São Jorge in the future, then these next couple of sections will hopefully be useful to you.
History of Castelo de São Jorge
Archaeologists have found that the first settlements on the castle hill in Alfama dates back to several centuries B.C.
It wasn’t until the mid-11th century that Castelo de São Jorge was built. During this period of time, the Moors from Northern Africa had conquered Lisbon. The São Jorge Castle’s first purpose was to serve as a fortification. It was never meant to be a royal resident, but was originally built as a place to house the Moorish military troops.
In 1147, the Moorish Domination in Lisbon ended, and it was decided that the castle should become a royal residence.
The transformation took a while, but in the 13th century the castle was finally turned into a royal residence. From the information we can find online, Castelo de São Jorge was home to many royals over the years and hosted several royal events – even coronations. Isn’t that exciting?!
However, the royal adventure came to a halt in the late 16th century when the castle was once again going to serve a military purpose. Castelo de São Jorge was turned into military barracks and garrison for the next couple of centuries.
Fast forward to 1910 when Castelo de São Jorge was recognized as a national monument of Portugal.
Then a big restoration of the castle took place in 1938-1940, which made it look the way it does today. The restoration apparently isn’t completely accurate to how it looked historically, yet we personally didn’t find it a problem because you still learn about the history and get an amazing experience from your visit.
And isn’t that what we are here for?
Best time to visit Lisbon’s castle
You can visit the castle every day all year round unless it’s a public holiday.
So it almost doesn’t matter which day in the week you visit Lisbon, the castle will most likely be open.
In our opinion, the best time to visit São Jorge Castle is just when it opens early in the morning. The biggest influx of people in most tourist destinations always happen over the course of the midday.
So visit Castelo de São Jorge when it opens at 9 AM in the morning, and you’ll be able to appreciate the place without the big crowds.
If you arrive later in the day, then we recommend you to get your ticket in advance so you can skip the line at the ticket office.
How to get to Lisbon’s castle
The castle is located in our favorite district of Lisbon – Alfama! It’s an amazing part of the city with so many incredible viewpoints and things to do.
Anyways, getting to the castle is a piece of cake. Well, unless you don’t like hills… The castle is located on Alfama’s hilltop, which means that you have to walk a steep incline in order to get there.
Luckily, there are ways to get to the castle in Lisbon if you hate walking or if your knees don’t agree with hills.
You can either take the bus #737 towards “Castelo”, which will take you straight to the entrance of the castle. Or you can ride the famous tram #28 to “Portas Sol” and walk from here.
If you do take the tram, then notice you have two great viewpoints in the nearby area “Miradouro das Portas do Sol” and “Miradouro de Santa Luzia”. Make sure to stop by these beautiful viewpoints while you’re in Alfama.
São Jorge Castle ticket price 2024
You can either buy your tickets directly at the ticket office or you can book this popular guided castle tour online. Here is a table over the ticket prices of Castelo de São Jorge in 2024:
| São Jorge ticket types | Ticket prices |
| Adults 26+ | €15 |
| 13-25 years old | €7,5 |
| Seniors 65+ and disabled persons | €12,5 |
| Lisbon residents and children under 12 years | FREE |
São Jorge Castle opening hours 2024
As mentioned earlier, the castle is open daily all-year-round except for a few public holidays. The opening hours of Castelo de São Jorge vary according to what time of year you visit, and the last entry is half an hour before closing.
Below are the updated opening hours for 2024:
| Summer: March 1st – October 31st | 9 AM – 9 PM |
| Winter: November 1st – February 28th | 9 AM – 6 PM |
5 Things to see in Lisbon’s São Jorge Castle
Great! Now that we’ve covered historical facts and all the practical information about the castle, let’s move on to visiting the castle itself.
We’ve been lucky enough to visit São Jorge castle two times – once on a weekend trip to Lisbon in January 2019 and once in June 2020 while we lived in Alfama for 3 months. Both times were amazing, although very different since there obviously were no tourists in 2020 compared to 2019.
Anyways, here are the biggest highlights from our experience of Lisbon’s amazing São Jorge Castle.
1. The best viewpoint in Lisbon
First of all, let’s talk about the viewpoint!
Once you buy your tickets and pass the entrance to the castle, you can see an amazing viewpoint straight ahead of you. The viewpoint is named, “Miradouro do Castelo de São Jorge” or “Saint George Castle viewpoint”.
You definitely want to start your exploration here!
We always love a good viewpoint, and this one certainly delivers.
You have incredible views over the Tagus river, and you can spot all the main attractions in the city center from here. You can play “Where’s Wally – The Lisbon attraction edition” and see if you can spot Elevador de Santa Justa, Praça do Comércio, Convento do Carmo, and Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara.
To be honest, this viewpoint over Lisbon is almost worth the entrance fee of the castle in itself… So make sure to stay here for a while and appreciate the orange rooftops.
2. Find the beautiful peacocks
Once you’ve been mesmerized by the incredible view of Lisbon, we encourage you to start walking towards the castle. While you do this, you’ll most likely spot the peacocks on this short walk.
Yep, that’s right! Lisbon’s castle have peacocks!
They often hang around in the trees or flower beds, so keep your eyes and ears open while you’re walking within the castle grounds.
If you don’t know what a peacock sound like, then imagine the sound of a screaming cat. Yep, this bird definitely looks more beautiful than it sounds… So if you hear a weird scream that you can’t really place, then it’s probably the peacocks that are nearby.
Glenn and I lived right next to the castle in Alfama during the outbreak of you-know-what in 2020 – honestly, I’m kind of done talking about it… Anyways, living right next to the castle in Lisbon meant that we got accustomed to having these beautiful birds around.
We’re honestly still amazed of how magnificent they look when they spread their tail feathers out wide. What a beautiful colorful creature!
So, if you’ve never seen peacocks before, then now is your chance.
Just remember! Don’t touch the bird or pick at its tail feathers. It doesn’t deserve stupid tourists to make it feel uncomfortable in its own home. It’s crazy that we even have to mention this, but these things sadly do occur.
3. Enter the castle and walk on the walls
Now that you’ve already seen an amazing viewpoint and hopefully spotted the beautiful birds, it’s time to finally enter the castle of Lisbon!
You’ll pretty quickly realize that there is no interior left from the place, which makes it feel more like a ruin than an actual castle you can visit. Beware of this, because some people expect an indoor castle experience, but visiting São Jorge is actually an outdoor experience.
Once you enter the small entrance, you can both walk in the yard, on top of the castle walls, and climb the stairs to several towers!
I didn’t count the towers myself, but apparently about 11 towers still remain in the castle (please correct me in the comments if I’m wrong). And you can walk up these towers for excellent views!
We absolutely loved walking on top of the castle walls of São Jorge! Even though it’s said that a lot of the castle isn’t original and was recreated in 1940, then we still find the whole experience very authentic.
4. Tower of St. Lawrence viewpoint
You can enter most of these towers in the castle for incredible views over Lisbon.
However, we found one viewpoint that stands out from the rest – it’s the viewpoint by the stairs down to the Tower of St. Lawrence, also known as “Torre de São Lourenço.” It’s located on the West Side of the entrance.
When we visited this viewpoint in January 2019 it was COMPLETELY crowded. Everyone wanted a picture of this place, and we 100% understand. This viewpoint is just gorgeous!
You will immediately see it because it feels like there is a “hole” in the castle wall. And all of a sudden you see a medieval staircase that wants to lead you down the hill. You can follow the steps down until it stops at a great little viewpoint at Lawrence Tower. However, we found that the viewpoint is best at the top of the stairs.
When we visited this viewpoint in the castle, back in Lisbon 2020, it was completely empty! We spent 20 minutes just sitting here and enjoying the beautiful view over the city.
Make sure to stop by for a great view and photo opportunity on your visit!
5. Archaeological excavation site in São Jorge castle
We never really explored the archaeological site in the castle, which is a shame. But if I remember correctly, then a lot of it is also closed off because they’re… digging?
They’re still working on the excavation in São Jorge, which is interesting because that can only mean that there is more to be found.
Apparently the archaeological excavation site both looks at findings from the Iron Age from 7th-3rd B.C., the Moorish period and quarter from 11th-12th century, plus the castle’s following royal residence years. Allegedly, most of the castle was destroyed in the massive earthquake of 1755 in Lisbon.
It will be interesting to see what other findings they will do in the future. So, make sure to walk by the excavation site on your trip to São Jorge Castle in Lisbon.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a picture from the excavation site, so you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself.
Why you have to visit the iconic castle in Lisbon
By this section of the blog post, we hope that we’ve managed to intrigue your curiosity for visiting São Jorge Castle in Lisbon. If that’s NOT the case, then we hope that this section will convince you to go.
So here are 5 reasons why you should visit the iconic castle:
- Castelo de São Jorge is what’s called a “MUST SEE” destination in Lisbon. why? Because it’s one of Lisbon’s most famous landmarks, and it’s a national monument of Portugal. Skipping it, would be like missing an important part of Lisbon.
- You learn about important Portuguese history. There is a lot of history within São Jorge castle grounds, which tells you a lot about how Lisbon used to be through time. So in a way, the castle is important to Lisbon’s legacy.
- The viewpoints are incredible. There are so many viewpoints within the premises, so even if you’re not into history, it’s still such a beautiful place to visit.
- You can only see the peacocks here. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that the only place to see peacocks in Lisbon is in Alfama. It’s such an incredible bird with its many colors! If you’ve never seen them before, then this is another good reason to visit São Jorge castle.
- Lisbon’s best Pastel de Nata is right around the corner! Let me let you in on a secret; not far away from the castle, you can eat the most delicious pastel de Nata! What better way to end your day exploring one of Portugal’s national monuments than enjoying a Portuguese dessert? Make sure to head to Pastelaria Santo António before you leave Alfama.
We hope you enjoyed this blog post about the iconic castle in Lisbon – Castelo de São Jorge. By now, you’re hopefully completely prepared for your own visit to this great attraction!
Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions for us, and don’t forget to book a guided tour here if you want to plan ahead.
Thanks for reading and happy travels!
- First time in Lisbon? Check out: 2 days Lisbon itinerary.
- First time in Portugal? Read this: What is Portugal famous for.
