Skip to content
Resistênciaby Onofriana.pt
Menu

Walk

Explore

The project

Appearance
O antigo edifício da Emissora Nacional, na Rua do Quelhas, hoje usado pelo ISEG, em 2021. GualdimG, CC BY-SA 4.0

Emissora Nacional (Rua do Quelhas)

Edifício de esquina de três pisos, amarelo e branco, com grandes janelas em arco e uma varanda de balaustrada, numa rua com carros estacionados.
O antigo edifício da Emissora Nacional, na Rua do Quelhas, hoje usado pelo ISEG, em 2021. GualdimG, CC BY-SA 4.0

Estrela

Emissora Nacional (Rua do Quelhas)

The regime’s official radio station was occupied in the early hours of 25 April 1974 by a small force from the Serra da Carregueira Firing Range, to serve as the MFA’s reserve broadcaster. It was fought over again on 11 March and 25 November 1975.

There is a marker at the siteApproximate location
See on the map

In 1974 the Emissora Nacional, the regime’s official radio station, stood at no. 2 Rua do Quelhas. The Armed Forces Movement (MFA) wanted to occupy it, to have it as a reserve broadcaster and to stop the regime from using it.1 The mission fell to the Serra da Carregueira Firing Range, with Captains Oliveira Pimentel and Frederico Morais, who had few men: they set out with 47, in two heavy vehicles and a jeep.2

They disarmed the PSP guards, who put up no resistance, and Captain Frederico Morais telephoned the Command Post: “Reporting we have occupied TOKYO without any incident.” The station suspended its broadcasts at 07:50, and at 08:30 a communiqué of the Movement was read here for the first time.21

During the attempted coup of 11 March 1975, at around 13:00, the 5th Division of the General Staff occupied the station and began broadcasting communiqués that alerted the population to the troop movements under way and called for support for the MFA.4 The Emissora Nacional declared itself the “only authorised voice”, Captain Duran Clemente spoke into its microphones, and the workers organised pickets outside it.5

On 25 November 1975, the station was occupied at 17:00 by Military Police and COPCON forces; half an hour later, the Military Police radio was calling for reinforcements to defend it.6

From the archives

In other archives

These can only be viewed on each archive’s own website.

Where it is

Map showing where Emissora Nacional (Rua do Quelhas) is.

Emissora Nacional (Rua do Quelhas)Rua do Quelhas, 2, Lisboa
On footBy public transportGoogle MapsOpenStreetMap

Dates

  1. 25 April 1974

    A force from the Serra da Carregueira Firing Range occupies the station (“TOKYO”).

  2. 25 April 1974, 08:30

    An MFA communiqué is read here for the first time.

  3. 11 March 1975, 13:00

    The 5th Division occupies the Emissora Nacional.

  4. 25 November 1975, 17:00

    Occupation by Military Police and COPCON forces.

Nearby

  • 140 m · 5 min on foot

    ISCEF, in the Quelhas

    Today: ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics & Management

    In a prefabricated lecture theatre at this school, on 12 October 1972, a DGS agent shot dead the law student José António Ribeiro Santos, during a “meeting against repression”. Aurora Rodrigues was in the room.

    RepressionStudents

  • 360 m · 5 min on foot

    Calçada Ribeiro Santos

    Today: Calçada Ribeiro Santos (formerly Calçada de Santos)

    José António Ribeiro Santos, the student killed by the DGS in 1972, lived here; from here his funeral set out, one of the largest demonstrations of the final phase of the dictatorship. The street has borne his name since the first street-naming edict after 25 April.

    RepressionStudentsRevolution

  • 370 m · 5 min on foot

    Palacete de São Bento – Salazar’s official residence

    Today: Official residence of the Prime Minister

    The mansion behind Parliament that the State expropriated in 1937 as the official residence of the President of the Council (head of government). Salazar lived here from May 1938 to July 1970, the month in which he died. Today it is the official residence of the Prime Minister.

    Repression

  • 420 m · 5 min on foot

    Palácio de São Bento

    Today: Assembly of the Republic

    The parliament where, in 1911, women were refused the vote and where, in 1975–76, twenty-seven women deputies helped to write the Constitution that prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex. Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen chaired the committee on the preamble here.

    WomenRevolutionRepublic
Notes on the sources3
  • The time of the occupation: 03:15 (the “Lugares de Abril” page; Jofre Alves’s chronology) or 03:50 (the chronology “Movimentações do dia 25 de Abril” (Movements on 25 April), by the same 25 April Association).
  • How many soldiers occupied the station: about a hundred, according to the “Lugares de Abril” page, or 47, according to the chronology of the same 25 April Association.
  • What is at no. 2 Rua do Quelhas today: the coordinates mark the street, not the building.

Do you know more, or do you have a document? Tell us.

Sources

  1. 1Emissora Nacional (Lugares de Abril). Associação 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
  2. 2Movimentações do dia 25 de Abril. Associação 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
  3. 3Cronologia do 25 de Abril, por Jofre Alves (blogue Abril de Novo, 2010), na Biblioteca Digital do CD25A. Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril – Universidade de Coimbra — consulted on 2 October 2026
  4. 4A defesa do RAL1 e a resposta do MFA. Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
  5. 5RAL 1 – Lisboa. RTP – Memórias da Revolução (textos de Aniceto Afonso, Carlos Matos Gomes e Maria Inácia Rezola) — consulted on 2 October 2026
  6. 625 de Novembro de 1975. Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril — consulted on 2 October 2026
  7. 7Inauguradas as últimas placas do Projeto «Lugares de Abril». Olhares de Lisboa, 2024 — consulted on 3 October 2026

Coordinates: OpenStreetMap (Nominatim), consultado a 2 de outubro de 2026.