The Santa Justa Lift (, ), also called Carmo Lift (, ), is an elevator, or lift, in the civil parish of Santa Maria Maior, in the historic center of Lisbon, Portugal. Situated at the end of Rua de Santa Justa, it connects the lower streets of the Baixa with the higher Largo do Carmo (Carmo Square).
Since its construction the lift has become a tourist attraction for Lisbon as, among the urban lifts in the city, Santa Justa is the only remaining vertical (conventional) one. Others, including Elevador da Glória and Elevador da Bica, are actually funicular railways, and the other lift constructed around the same time, the Elevator of São Julião, has since been demolished.
History
The hills of Lisbon have always presented a problem for travel between the lower streets of the main Baixa and the higher Largo do Carmo (Carmo Square). In order to facilitate the movement between the two, the civil and military engineer Roberto Arménio presented a project to the Lisbon municipal council in 1874. A similar project was suggested in 1876, that included rail-lines that would be pulled by animals up an inclined plane. <!-- Until 1785, this system continued to function in the zone around Carmo.
In 1900, the formal contract was signed between the Municipal Council of Lisbon and the Empresa do Elevador do Carmo (extinct in 1939), on which the working group was obligated to present a project for an elevator in a period of six months; and the respective concessionary company bought the Elevator in 1913, from the Empresa do Elevador do Carmo.