Almost caught by the police... Panorámico de Monsanto

Today was a very interesting and exciting day. I wanted already for a long time to go to the Panorámico de Monsanto. I read about it in an online guide about Lisbon and thought it sounded good. It is a restaurant on a miradouro – which is a lookout – that was constructed almost 50 years ago. At some point, they probably didn’t have any money left, because they stopped the constructions and since then, it has been abandoned. Over the years, it fell into ruin and was more or less forgotten. But not with the tourists! I actually already heard several times about that and also know people who went there. So, I looked up how to get there and waited for good weather. On the internet, I already read that it is closed and you cannot get in, but I knew from other people that there are holes in the fence and that is how you can get in.

So, today was a really good day and I went with my friend to Monsanto. We took the bus to get to the big park and then walked to the Restaurant… which is located directly next to the military station! That was already one point, which let us rethink the whole thing. The next point was actually, when we arrived there and saw the sign, which said “Entrada proíbido para pessoas nao autorizadas. A entrada vai ser penalizado com 3 mêses de prisao. ”, which means entrance for non-authorized persons forbidden – clear until hear – the entrance will be punished with three months of prison. Ok, that did change the whole thing. We both didn’t want to go to prison and already thought about returning, or at least searching for another lookout in the forest. We walked for some time, but as the trees are so high, you couldn’t see anything. We thought by ourselves that there are so many people who enter there and I never heard anything about prison before. On the other hand, the sign also looked pretty new. Again on the other side, it was a Sunday, the police for sure had better things to do than watching after an abandoned building.

How would they even know about people entering? A video camera? Then, all of the people who already entered would have been punished and we would already know about that. An alarm? Same thing, but with the chance to flee. People who pass by and call the police? There are so few people passing by and why should they care about who is on the property and who is not? The military station? The most probable answer. But again, it was Sunday and they for sure have better things to do than look for the property, which, however, is very close to their property and as the whole restaurant is a ruin, you can see almost everything what is going on there. Finally, we decided to enter, don’t stay long, just see the view, take pictures and leave. So, we entered the property and stayed close the trees until we entered in the – I don’t know, from one side it could be the cave, from the other the ground floor. There were many street art paintings and you could see that already many people had passed. But probably also a long time ago as the street art takes some time and with that sign staying for a long time seems a bit risky. Poets and pictures were sprayed on the walls, There is no floor and no windows, nor doors, just the concrete walls.

We took the stairs to get one floor higher. The stairs even further down, didn’t look trustworthy. On the first floor, you can already see the skyline of Lisbon. The floor is covered on building materials and you have to pay attention, where you walk. We heard some noises and got scared. We thought someone might be there. Tourists would not be a problem, but the police? We thought what to do if we were caught. If we were close enough to the fence, we could run. If not we could try the way that we normally do it with people who beg for money. I just tell them: “Sorry, ich spreche absolut kein Englisch und kein Portugiesisch und auch keine andere Sprache außer Deutsch, ich habe nicht verstanden, dass wir hier nicht reindürfen” or anything else in German, they will get that I don’t speak any other language. The problem was only, that my friend is Portuguese. So, we don’t have a plan and just hope not to be caught.

There were some beautiful Azulejos at the walls and the winding stairs gave the place a very special atmosphere.

One floor higher, there was much more stuff lying on the floor and when we looked up, we also know why: the whole ceiling was already coming down. Half of it was already on the floor, parts were hanging down, cables swinging in the wind. And that was also the noise that we heard:the falling of pieces. That made us a little scared, because the falling pieces were big and could hurt someone badly. That must be the reason, why it is really forbidden to enter. We paid attention to not get too close to one of the dangling pieces as we didn’t want to die here. Nobody even knew where we were and apart from that just a lookout is not worth it. On one side, there had been windows, which were completely broken. The glass was lying everywhere on the floor. From here, you had an amazing view over Lisbon. You could see the city, the bridge, the aqueduct and of course the park underneath us. Everything was so beautiful and the fact of abandonment and the falling into ruins made it even more beautiful and gave it a special atmosphere.

On this floor, there was something like a half-floor, which we didn’t dare to go up as it looked really instable. Also we didn’t see stairs that went up to the highest floor, so we just took our last pictures of the beautiful walls and then left the place as we were still afraid of being caught. Already outside, we felt better and thought? Why all the excitement? Nothing even happened. We took parts of the police ribbon that once closed the fence but was already torn apart and went for a little walk. I had thought that the might have walking ways in the forest as it is a big forest and nice for walks. We found a way off the road and followed it. Actually, after some time, we noticed that it was just going around the property of the Panorámico de Monsanto and went back as we didn’t want to be caught in the middle of a forest close to one of the holes in the fence. We returned the same road that we came as we wanted to take the bus back. My friend asked in a joke if we wanted to enter again and exactly in this moment, the police drove past us. At first I thought, maybe they are just on their way somewhere else and pass here, or the pass here on purpose to show their presence. But then, they stopped their car exactly at the entrance of the restaurant. My heart sank deep into my shoes. We were walking at the other side of the road, had some of their ribbons in our backpacks and many pictures on our mobiles. The only advantage that we had was that we were coming from the “wrong direction”, which is the direction of not the bus stop and which makes it unlikelier to seem being on our way there and we already had exactly passed by the hole in the fence. The police men got directly out of their car, went to the fence and screamed something in Portuguese. We were too far to understand, but it was obvious that it must have been something like “get out of here” and then, we already saw a group of five or six people going towards the police men. The police men seemed very angry and serious. I was talking to my flatmate about dinner and we tried to look as uninterested and unsuspicious as possible, when we passed the police men. Arriving at the bus station, I put the ribbon that I took deep down in my bag and put other things over it and then, we just hoped that the bus was coming soon as the station was still close to the restaurant and it was the only road to get there, so the police would pass here, when they were finished with the other guys. If they asked us what we did in this region, where apparently nothing much is going on, and to show our mobiles, we would also have a problem. When the bus came, we were so relieved and happy. We would never have thought that they really control the place. Which means, controlling is the wrong word as they didn’t seem to “just have a look”, it really seemed they knew that someone was there as they went straight to the entrance. We had been really lucky, we would have just had to stay some more time, enjoying the view, taking pictures, maybe even meet the other and in a bigger group feel safer… and we would also have been caught. Sometimes it is good to be afraid and listen to your common sense. Ok, my common sense would have told me not to enter at all, which would have been the best way.

We really wondered, how we could be so lucky to not be caught. We are both one of the most unlucky persons that I know. We always miss the bus, train, everything, let things fall, fall ourselves… everything that can happen, happens… and then the two of us in one place: horrible! Even less luck! And that they, we had once luck just in the right moment!

What a day! What an excitement!

Photo gallery