“If the funicular hadn’t hit the wall, we would all have died here”
Accounts from two witnesses, one of them a survivor, help explain what happened this Wednesday, when the Glória funicular left at least 17 people dead in the heart of Lisbon.
Abel Esteves, 76, has lived in Bairro Alto for five decades. He often used the Glória funicular, especially to go up. On Wednesday afternoon, “at a quarter to five”, he rode down Calçada da Glória in the car now wrecked, with his wife and grandson. He found the noise “very strange”, and even remarked: “It needs oil.”
The accident in the heart of Lisbon, which killed 16 people according to the latest figures given by the prime minister, happened at around 6pm. A safety cable is thought to have snapped, leaving the two funicular cars in free fall. In 2018, the funicular had also derailed and run up the street, but no one was hurt that time.
AI translation from the Portuguese. First published in ECO on 4 September 2025.