7 Best Sights in Avenida da Liberdade, Príncipe Real, and Restauradores, Lisbon

With a beautiful Moorish-style atrium, the city's movie museum hosts exhibitions on film history and screens classics from all over the world, usually in the original language and with Portuguese or English subtitles. Arrive early to check out the treasures displayed around the building, like the first Lumière projector used in the country. There's a café with a pleasant terrace.

Formerly Parque da Liberdade, this park was renamed in 1903 when England’s Edward VII visited Portugal. Its large central promenade has manicured lawns featuring traditional Portuguese cobblestone pavement with geometric designs and views of the city center. The beautifully kept Estufa Fria is a sprawling 1930s greenhouse garden whose various habitats are arranged around a pretty pool. It's a romantic oasis in the middle of the city.

Liberty Avenue was laid out in 1879 as an elegant Parisian-style boulevard modeled on the Champs-Élysees. It has since lost some of its allure: many of the late-19th-century mansions and art deco buildings that once graced it have been demolished; others have been turned into soulless office blocks. There are, however, still some notable survivors of the original boulevard, now turned into luxury hotels and international fashion outlets. It’s worth a leisurely stroll up the 1½-km (1-mile) length of the avenue, past ponds, fountains, and statues, from Praça dos Restauradores to Parque Eduardo VII, at least once, if only to cool off with a drink in one of the quiosques (refreshment kiosks) beneath the trees and to admire the iconic designs of the cobblestone pavements.

One of Lisbon’s lesser-known but most extraordinary museums, this is the former residence of collector António de Medeiros e Almeida. Every room of his late-19th-century mansion is filled with works of art ranging from paintings to ceramics, sculptures to furnishings. Highlights include paintings by Rubens and Tiepolo, a Rembrandt portrait, a silver tea set used by Napoléon, fountains originally from the Palace of Versailles, and what's said to be the world's most notable private collection of clocks.

Lisbon's main botanical garden was first laid out in 1874 to teach students about botany, and is still part of the University of Lisbon. Hidden behind the small Museu de História Natural about 2 km (1 mile) north of the Bairro Alto, the garden has 10 acres of paths through nearly 15,000 species of subtropical plants.

Adjacent to Rossio Train Station, this square marks the beginning of modern Lisbon. Here the broad, tree-lined Avenida da Liberdade starts its northwesterly ascent. Restauradores means "restorers," and the square commemorates the 1640 uprising against Spanish rule that restored Portuguese independence. An 1886 obelisk commemorates the event. Note the elegant, pink-hued 18th-century Foz Palace on the square's west side. Before World War I, it was a casino; today it houses a tourist office, a sports museum, and a shop selling reproductions from the country's state museums. The only building to rival the palace is the restored Éden building, just to the south. This art deco masterpiece of Portuguese architect Cassiano Branco now contains a hotel. You'll also see the Elevador da Glória, the funicular that travels up to Bairro Alto and its famous viewpoint.

Dominating the center of Marquês de Pombal Square is a statue of the marquis himself, the man responsible for the design of the "new" Lisbon that emerged from the ruins of the 1755 earthquake. On the statue's base are representations of both the earthquake and the tidal wave that engulfed the city; a female figure with outstretched arms signifies the joy at the emergence of the refashioned city. The square is effectively a large roundabout and a useful orientation point, since it stands at the northern end of Avenida da Liberdade.