Lanceiros 2 Barracks / Military Police Regiment (Calçada da Ajuda)
On 25 April 1974 the command post of the forces loyal to the regime was set up in the Lanceiros 2 barracks, on Calçada da Ajuda, until the soldiers themselves sided with the Movement. On 25 November 1975, the Commandos attacked the Military Police Regiment here: three people were killed.
On the morning of 25 April 1974, the ministers and military chiefs who escaped from the Army Ministry, on the Terreiro do Paço, through a wall knocked open with pickaxes — the Ministers of the Army, of Defence and of the Navy, the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, the Military Governor of Lisbon and Admiral Henrique Tenreiro, among others — came to the Lanceiros 2 Regiment, on Calçada da Ajuda, where the command post of the forces loyal to the regime was set up.1 Jofre Alves puts their arrival at 09:40.3 At dawn, the counter-offensive had already left Ajuda — five M47 tanks and Panhard armoured cars, with Brigadier Junqueira dos Reis, heading for the Terreiro do Paço — and it fell apart when the soldiers refused to fire, on the Ribeira das Naus and on Rua do Arsenal.21
Throughout the day, the unit’s junior officers, sergeants and rank and file demanded that the ministers leave and gradually took a stand against the regime.32 At 15:30, a helicopter took the Ministers of Defence, of the Navy and of the Army from here to Monsanto, where they were arrested early in the evening; the only reason it did not also take Marcelo Caetano was that there was nowhere to land at the Carmo Barracks. Late in the afternoon, a column from the Artillery Practical School, under Captain Mira Monteiro, surrounded the barracks; two officer cadets opened the gates and said that the conscript officers and the rank and file were with the Movement. The commander, Colonel Pinto Bessa, and Major Cruz Azevedo refused to join, and the force went in without incident.2
On 25 November 1975, the Amadora Commandos, led by Jaime Neves, occupied the Military Police Regiment, in Ajuda, after a clash that left three dead, on both sides; the Military Police command — Majors Campos Andrada, Mário Tomé and Cuco Rosa — was arrested.45 The Commemorative Commission for the 50 Years of 25 April calls it the attack on the “barracks of the Lanceiros Regiment, in Ajuda”, and contrasts it with the way Salgueiro Maia had conducted the siege of the Carmo Barracks on 25 April.6
Today: Palácio de Belém – Presidency of the Republic
Here, in 1970, the first woman to be part of a government in Portugal took office. In September 1974 the palace was the stage for the tense meetings that led to Spínola’s resignation; on 25 November 1975, for President Costa Gomes’s command post.
Today: Jardim Botânico Tropical — Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (Universidade de Lisboa)
Criado em 1906 como Jardim Colonial, recebeu em 1940 a Secção Colonial da Exposição do Mundo Português: 138 homens, mulheres e crianças trazidos das colónias foram aqui expostos ao público durante meses.
Today: Jardim público, com a Fonte Monumental ao centro
Aberta para a Exposição do Mundo Português, em 1940, foi o centro da maior montra de propaganda do império montada pelo Estado Novo. Os brasões das colónias que o jardim recebeu nos anos 60 voltaram a dar polémica no século XXI.
Today: Cordoaria Nacional; no edifício funciona o Arquivo Histórico da Marinha
Na antiga Real Fábrica da Cordoaria instalaram-se em 1902 o Hospital Colonial e a Escola de Medicina Tropical: a medicina de que o império precisava, para tratar quem voltava doente de África e formar os médicos das colónias.
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Notes on the sources4
Whether in 1975 the Military Police Regiment occupied the same barracks as Lanceiros 2 (the sources use both names), and the exact spot on Calçada da Ajuda.
The names of the three dead of 25 November 1975.
The spelling of the major’s name: “Campos Andrada” (25 April Association, Jofre Alves) or “Campos Andrade” (Commemorative Commission).
The time at which the regime’s command post began operating here: the 25 April Association already places it at Lanceiros 2 at 06:45; Jofre Alves gives the ministers’ arrival as 09:40.
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