A Rua do Arsenal, junto aos Paços do Concelho, em 2017.Sam, CC BY 2.0
Santa Maria Maior / Misericórdia
Rua do Arsenal and Avenida da Ribeira das Naus
On the Ribeira das Naus and Rua do Arsenal, on the morning of 25 April 1974, the soldiers of the forces loyal to the regime refused Brigadier Junqueira dos Reis’s orders to fire on Salgueiro Maia. “That was where 25 April was won” (Foi ali que se ganhou o 25 de Abril), Maia would say.
There is a marker at the siteApproximate locationOn one walk
On the morning of 25 April 1974, the forces of the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) were in the Terreiro do Paço, under the command of Captain Salgueiro Maia. From the command post it had set up at Lanceiros 2, the regime launched its counter-offensive: five M47 tanks and Panhard armoured cars of the 7th Cavalry Regiment left Ajuda, with Brigadier Junqueira dos Reis, Colonel Romeiras Júnior, Lieutenant Colonel Ferrand de Almeida and Major Pato Anselmo.3 At around 07:00, on Avenida da Ribeira das Naus, Ferrand de Almeida could not get his men to obey him and surrendered to Maia, beneath the windows of the Army Ministry.34
At 09:35 the brigadier arrived, the second-in-command of the Lisbon Military Region.4 Two M47s commanded by Officer Cadet Fernando Sottomayor advanced along the Ribeira das Naus, with riflemen from the 1st Infantry Regiment and a small force from Lanceiros 2. Salgueiro Maia walked towards them with a white handkerchief. The brigadier ordered Sottomayor to open fire on Maia; the cadet refused and was placed under arrest. The same order was given to the tank gunners, who also refused.4 Major Pato Anselmo surrendered, the M47 turrets swung round 180 degrees and the tanks went over to the Movement’s side.3 Maia would later say that, in the photograph in which he is biting his lip, he was holding back tears: “That was where 25 April was won” (Foi ali que se ganhou o 25 de Abril).4
Junqueira dos Reis fell back to Rua do Arsenal, where the rest of the column was, with Colonel Romeiras.3 Lieutenants Alfredo Assunção and Santos Silva, of the Cavalry Practical School, and Sergeant Nunes, of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, tried to negotiate with him, to no avail. The brigadier again ordered them to fire, and again no one fired; exasperated, he punched Lieutenant Assunção three times, and Assunção did not hit back: he saluted him and withdrew.4 Colonel Romeiras placed himself between the weapons and the lieutenant, calling for calm.3
In the afternoon, the brigadier still tried to surround Maia’s column in Largo do Carmo, from Largo de Camões. He left ten minutes after the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, from Estremoz, arrived, and what was left of his forces joined the Movement.3
The second chapter of the film made from the photographs Alfredo Cunha took in Lisbon on 25 April 1974, with music by Rodrigo Leão, directed by Miguel Brugo, and published by the Commission on 14 February 2024. It follows the book of the same name, in which this part has a text by Adelino Gomes and pictures of the Ribeira das Naus, Rua do Arsenal and Largo do Carmo.
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial da Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril
Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril, on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
Where it is
Map showing where Rua do Arsenal and Avenida da Ribeira das Naus is.
Opening the map…
Rua do Arsenal and Avenida da Ribeira das NausRua do Arsenal / Avenida Ribeira das Naus, 1100-038 Lisboa
The square of the ministries, the centre of power of the Estado Novo (“New State”). At dawn on 25 April 1974 Captain Salgueiro Maia’s column from Santarém occupied it; the forces sent against it went over one after another to the Movement’s side, and the ministers escaped through a wall knocked open with pickaxes.
A convent turned into a court in 1843. The Plenary Court, which tried political prisoners, sat here — and it was here that Maria Alda Nogueira, Natália Correia and the “Three Marias” were tried; the Three Marias were acquitted after 25 April.
In the Rádio Renascença studios, on the second floor of no. 5 Rua Capelo, the first verse of “Grândola, Vila Morena”, by José Afonso, went on air at 00:20 on 25 April 1974, on the programme “Limite” — the signal that confirmed the advance of the MFA troops.
An advertisement from 1909 places the surgery of Carolina Beatriz Ângelo, a gynaecologist and the first Portuguese woman surgeon, here, at no. 84 Rua Nova do Almada — two years before she became the first woman to vote in Portugal.
WomenLabour
Notes on the sources3
Fernando Sottomayor’s rank: officer cadet (25 April Association, Commemorative Commission for the 50th Anniversary of 25 April) or conscript second lieutenant (Jofre Alves’s chronology).
The times: the 25 April Association places the confrontations between 06:30 or 07:00 and 10:30, and the assault on Lieutenant Assunção at 10:45, as does Jofre Alves; the Commemorative Commission puts the confrontation on Rua do Arsenal at 10:30.
Whether the brigadier fired two shots into the air before falling back to Rua do Arsenal: only Jofre Alves’s chronology says so.
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