Tourist attraction
Lavra Funicular
1150-122 Lisbon
Yellow wooden funicular climbing a steep street, the city's oldest, first powered by water.
This guide to the Lavra Funicular in Lisbon traces its start in April 1884 as the oldest funicular in the city, first powered entirely by water and gravity rather than any engine. It follows the engineer Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, who studied under Gustave Eiffel, and the 1897 accident when a snapped cable left it idle on this hillside for years. Watch how it climbs now, powered by electricity wired into the cars themselves since 1915.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.