Quay
‘City of Lisbon’ moored to the quay of the Gare Marítima da Rocha do Conde de Óbidos with a hole in the bow (1947). Port of Lisbon Archive
The Alcântara and Rocha do Conde de Óbidos maritime stations were built to meet a long-standing need: to provide the city of Lisbon with suitable terminals to accommodate large passenger ships. As originally planned, the construction of these stations should have happened in the 1930s, but due to a succession of delays and difficulties, the works were postponed until 1940, the year in which the Alcântara Maritime Station should already be opened to welcome visitors to the 1940 Portuguese World Exhibition — the largest and most famous exposition of the Estado Novo’s nationalist ideological...
But that goal would not be achieved. The Alcântara station was only inaugurated in 1943, and the Rocha do Conde de Óbidos station in 1948. Both stations were already in operation when Almada Negreiros created the large-scale mural paintings that grace them.
Countless stories have passed through the Lisbon quay during the construction of the maritime stations and afterwards. At the start of World War II, thousands of refugees waited here for ships and visas that would allow them to leave Europe.
Before and after the war, thousands of emigrants took leave from these stations on their way to the Americas.
The colonists, too, left from here to Angola, Mozambique, and, to a lesser extent, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, in a colonization venture that was encouraged by the dictatorial regime until its demise.
On the other hand, many people arrived here on their return to Europe after the war, as well as many tourists, vacationing emigrants, and young Africans who, among other destinations, joined the Casa dos Estudantes do Império — some of them organizing there anti-colonial resistance activities. Soldiers left from here to fight in the war waged by the Estado Novo in an effort to maintain its African territories, with countless casualties on both sides of the conflict.
The surviving soldiers later returned here, and, after the 25th of April, with the decolonization process, so did the vast number of people who had left the former colonies.
To the present day, the quay has never ceased to be a station for passengers and goods, as well as a place of transit and waiting.
