Rossio Train Station

This guide to Rossio Station in Lisbon opens on the evening of December 14, 1918, as Portugal's president, Sidônio Pais, passes beneath the twin horseshoe arches on his way to catch the late train to Porto, eight days after a first attempt on his life had already failed. It traces José Júlio da Costa, waiting upstairs with a pistol under his Alentejo cloak, and steps back to the station's 1891 opening under architect José Luís Monteiro's Neo-Manueline design. The doubled security cordon that night is worth picturing as you pass through the same arches Pais walked through.