The Rossío - itself more or less encircled by cafés - is very much a focus for the city, yet its single concession to grandeur is the Teatro Nacional, built along the north side in the 1840s. At the waterfront end of the Baixa, the Praça do Comércio was intended as the climax to Pombal's design, but these days it's a tawdry spot - more car park than square - though the town planners are working to bring the square back into the hub of city life by pedestrianizing the area. 
f the Praça do Comércio is the church of Conceição Velha, severely damaged by the earthquake but retaining its flamboyant Manueline doorway, an early example of this style which hints at the brilliance that emerged at Belém. The Cathedral - or Sé  stands very stolidly above. Founded in 1150 to commemorate the city's reconquest from the Moors, it in fact occupies the site of the principal mosque of Moorish Lishbuna. Like so many of the country's cathedrals, it is Romanesque and extraordinarily restrained in both size and decoration. For admission to the thirteenth-century cloisters  you must buy a ticket, as you must for the Baroque sacristy with its small museum of treasures - including the relics of Saint Vincent, allegedly brought to Lisbon in 1173 in a boat piloted by ravens. 

 From the Sé, Rua Augusto Rosa winds upward towards the Castelo, past sparse ruins of a Roman theatre and the Miradouro de Santa Luzia, where the conquest of Lisbon and the siege of the Castelo de São Jorge are depicted in azulejos on the walls. At the entrance to the Castelo stands a triumphant statue of Afonso Henriques, conqueror of the Moors. Of the Moorish palace that once stood here only a much-restored shell remains - but the castle as a whole is an enjoyable place to spend a couple of hours, wandering amid the ramparts and towers to look down upon the city. Crammed within the castle's outer walls is the tiny medieval quarter of Santa Cruz, once very much a village in itself though now littered with gift shops and restaurants. 
alls of the Castelo to the banks of the Tagus, is the oldest part of Lisbon. In Arab times this was the grandest part of the city, but with subsequent earthquakes the new Christian nobility moved out, leaving it to the fishing community still here today. It is undergoing some commercialization, thanks to its cobbled lanes and "character", but although the antique shops and restaurants may be moving in, the quarter retains a largely traditional life of its own. The Feira da Ladra, Lisbon's rambling and ragged flea market, fills the Campo de Santa Clara, at the edge of Alfama, on Tuesday mornings and all day Saturday. While at the flea market, take a look inside Santa Engrácia, the loftiest and most tortuously built church in the city - begun in 1682, its vast dome was finally completed in 1966. Through the tiled cloisters of nearby São Vicente de Fora you can visit the old monastic refectory, since 1855 the pantheon of the Bragança dynasty. Here, in more or less complete (though unexciting) sequence, are the bodies of all Portuguese kings from João IV, who restored the monarchy, to Manuel II, who lost it and died in exile in England in 1932. 

Mésnier's extraordinary Elevador Santa Justa, just off the top end of Rua do Ouro on Rua de Santa Justa, is the most obvious approach to Bairro Alto. Alternatively, there are the two funicular-like trams - the Elevador da Glória from the Praça dos Restauradores (just up from the tourist office) or the Elevador da Bica from Rua de São Paulo/Rua da Moeda. The ruined Gothic arches of the Convento do Carmo hang almost directly above the exit of Mésnier's elevador. Once the largest church in the city, this was half-destroyed by the earthquake but is perhaps even more beautiful as a result; it now houses a small archeological museum. The church of São Roque, over towards the Chiado in the Largo Trindade Coelho , looks from the outside like the plainest in the city, its bleak Renaissance facade having been further simplified by the earthquake. But hang around in the gloom and the sacristan will come and escort you around, turning on lights to an incredible succession of side chapels, each lavishly crafted with azulejos, multicoloured marble, or Baroque painted ceilings. The climax is the Capela de São João Baptista, last on the left. It was ordered from Rome in 1742 by Dom João V to honour his patron saint and was designed using the most costly materials available, including ivory, agate, porphyry and lapis lazuli.