Praça Dom Pedro IV

This guide to Praca Dom Pedro IV in Lisbon opens in 1540, when crowds packed Rossio Square not for a market but for an auto-da-fe, the Inquisition's public ceremony of condemnation. It traces the Palace of Estaus that once stood on the square's north side, the trials held inside it, and the fire that finally brought it down in 1836. You'll hear about the column at the square's center and a persistent legend about who the statue on top was really meant to portray. Look closely at the buttons and collar carved into the stone to judge the story for yourself.