This bench is next to the Duarte Pacheco Viaduct, but it’s not there by chance.
Anyone who passes this spot before reaching the Amoreiras gas stations must have asked this question several times.
We’ve asked it so many times that we decided to go and investigate. And what we discovered was surprising!
That’s because one of Lisbon’s 15 geomonuments is located there.
In other words, that cliff is full of fossils from the Upper Cretaceous, a period when the ocean level rose a lot and the sea (shallow and with warm waters) invaded those lands.
Not far away, in Rua Sampaio e Bruno (Campo de Ourique) and Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian (Campolide), there are also similar remains.
To mark this geomonument, a marker has been placed next to the Duarte Pacheco Viaduct and… this bench, where it’s rare to see anyone sitting.
It’s true that nobody sits on it, but it has a reason for being. The mystery has been solved.