Drones Over Portugal's Grande Lisbon Region

Drone Video of the Week finalist ArturCarvalho brings us this brilliant video from Lisbon during one of the strangest times in the long history of the great Portuguese capital city: during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020.  As Spain became one of countries worst hit by the deadly virus, its neighbor Portugal adopted increasingly stringent social distancing measures to combat its spread.  The result is what you will see in the video - public spaces nearly emptied of people and ordinarily busy streets appearing virtually deserted.  

Contributor francescoview met up with two friends in the great city of Lisbon, and in the course of 24 hours they were able to capture the essence of the Portuguese capital. Produced using a well-edited combination of drone and ground camera footage, the video's highlights include great shots of the Marquis of Pombal Square (and roundabout), the 25 de Abril Bridge across the Tagus River, the Praça do Comércio public square, Belém Tower, and more. This video was a DVOW finalist in October, 2019.

Top AirVuz contributor and pilot Francisco Rodriguez put together this stunning compilation of footage from his native province of Sintra, Portugal.  The video opens with a magnificent sunrise shot of Pena Palace, the great 19th century Romanticist edifice which is situated about a half hour northwest of Lisbon.  Then it's on to the also-iconic lighthouse of Cabo de Roca, at the western extremity of mainland Portugal.   You'll also be treated to some epic surfing and paragliding footage from the Portuguese Riviera.

Cascais is a town lying on the Portuguese Atlantic coast immediately to the west of Portugal's capital city Lisbon, near the middle of the country's Atlantic coastline.  Part of the area known as the Portuguese Riviera, Cascais is the most popular beach area in Portugal and one of the finest on the European continent.  Contributor Deardrone used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to fly over this spectacular resort area, and the aerial views of the colorful umbrellas, happy beach goers, and refreshing waters is not to be missed!

Portugal's Romanesque Revival style Pena Palace is considered one of the greatest of the European castles.  It's located at the top of Sintra Mountain overlooking the town of the same name, near the Portuguese capital city Lisbon.  Completed in 1854, it is regarded as one of the country's greatest national treasures.  Contributor Francisco Rodriguez, one of the top drone pilots in Portugal, created this amazing aerial view of this hilltop place of almost surreal beauty as it glimmers in the mist.  

Top contributor and former Drone Video of the Week winner ArturCarvalho created this excellent piece from his hometown of Cascais, Portugal.  Cascais is a beach town which is located about a half hour drive due west of Lisbon, just past the mouth of the Tagus River.   It's part of the Portuguese Riviera, a stretch of coastline west and northwest of Lisbon which became popular with the Portuguese Royal Family in the second half of the 19th century and continues to be one of Europe's most popular beach destinations.  

Cabo de Roca in southwestern Portugal enjoys the distinction of being the westernmost location in mainland Europe.  It is part of the Sintra district, which lies to the north and west of the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon.  The landscape of Cabo de Roca is one of white sand beaches and spectacular cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  Contributor and pilot Flying Visions flew a drone over this amazing spot, giving us a beautiful aerial view of what was once the western edge of Europe's known world. 

Contributor Francisco Rodriguez created this amazing drone video of the surfing scene at Praia Grande Beach, one of Portugal's most famous beaches.  It's located in the Sintra province of the Greater Lisbon region, just a bit west-northwest of the capital city.  It's part of the area sometimes known as the Portuguese Riviera, a stretch of Atlantic coastline that includes other famed beaches such as Cabo de Roca and Cascais, which are more popular with swimmers (as opposed to surfers) and lie to its south.  

Drone-Cascais used a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone to create this spectacular aerial video of the lighthouse of Cabo da Roca, one of the most well known such structures in Portugal.  The lighthouse has a modest height of 22 meters (72 ft.), but the height of the cliff gives it a focal height of 165 meters (about 540 ft.).  It's situated on the cape of the same name, at (more or less) the western extremity of Portugal in its Sintra privince, part of the Greater Lisbon region.  It was built in 1772 and continues to operate.

Setúbal is a medium sized port city on the estuary of the Sado River, in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal.  Situated a bit to the south of the city of Lisbon, its calm waters stand in stark contrast to the much rougher Atlantic waters of the cities along the country's Atlantic coast.  The city was once the center of Portugal's fishing industry, one of the largest in the world at one point.  Jorge Novo Murias used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create a bird's eye view of the waterfront of Setúbal at sunset.  

Contributor Goncaloafranco used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this amazing aerial tour of Ericeira, an idyllic seaside town in the Greater Lisboa region of central Portugal.  It's considered to be one of the best surfing spots in Europe, and is the center of Portuguese surfing culture.  The town, which has a population of about 10,000, lies about a half hour drive to the northwest of the capital city Lisbon.  Enjoy the views of Portugal's uniquely blue Atlantic Ocean waters and stunning coastline.  

Contributor RickKengan used a DJI Phantom 3 drone to create this beautiful aerial capture of Almada, Portugal. Almada sits across the Tagus River from the capital Lisbon, with which its relationship resembles the relationship between San Francisco and Oakland, California: the two cities are connected by a bridge of fairly recent vintage.   In the case of Almada, the connection was provided through the 25 de Abril Bridge, which opened for auto traffic in 1966 and is one of the most important pieces of Portuguese infrastructure.  

Eminorcks created this epic drone video of Sintra, a culturally important Portuguese town in the Greater Lisbon area, just northwest of the capital city.  An ancient city that has long been one of the most important in Portugal, Sintra was "discovered" again beginning in the late 18th century, when many new structures were built in the Romanticist style.  It continues to be one of the biggest tourist destinations in Portugal, and its travel indistry helps to propel the entire Greater Lisbon region of Portugal.  

During the 16th century, the then-mighty Kingdom of Portugal constructed a series of fortresses along the banks of the Tagus River estuary to protect its capital city Lisbon from its main vulnerability - seaborne invasion.  The most important of these was the Fort of São Julião da Barra, which is located on a promontory on the northern bank of the river's final outlet.  DroneCascais used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create a spectacular bird's eye view great fort, which was completed in 1568.

YanivLahav created this spectacular view of one of the natural wonders of Portugal: the famous caves of Boca Inferno near Lisbon.  They lie near the beach city of Cascais, just west of the mouth of the Tagus River, on a stretch of coastline known as the Portuguese Riviera.  A short distance from Lisbon, the caves are a popular tourist attraction.  The famed beaches of Cascais, some of the most popular in Portugal, lie just to the east of the caves.  The entire area is considered part of the Grande Lisboa region.

Guincho Beach (Praia do Guincho) is on Portugals's Estoril Coast, an area of Atlantic Ocean coastline near Lisbon which is sometimes known as the Portuguese Riviera.   The area is one of the beach destinations that benefitted immeasurably from being used in a James Bond film:  Guincho Beach was the filming location for the opening scene of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the seventh film in the series.  Contributor Mig_Moura brings us this beautiful bird's eye view of the famous beach.

Contributor guydrory created this magnificent aerial view of Pena Palace, one of the great cultural treasures of Portugal and widely considered one of the world's top 4-5 castles.  It's located in the hills of the Sintra province, northwest of Lisbon.  Completed on the site of a ruined medieval monastery in 1854, it was built as a summer residence for the Portuguese Royal Family.  Its design represents one of the more prominent architectural expressions of 19th century Romanticist thought.  

One of the reasons why the Atlantic Ocean coastline of Portugal has become such a big attraction is the visually compelling interplay between the coast's cliffs and its beaches.  In some spots, the spectacular rocky cliffs plunge straight down to the ocean, in others they sit behind a protected beach, and in still others they are absent entirely.  You can see this phenomenon for yourself in this drone video by VGVideos.  It was shot around Cascais and Estoril, on the so-called Portuguese Riviera just west of Lisbon.

Contributor Jorge Novo Murias created this aerial view of a castle in Portugal's Grande Lisboa region.  It's called Castelo de Sesimbra, and it's located in the province of Setúbal, a bit to the south of the capital city Lisbon.  The medieval area castle is built on a cliff in a strategic location, overlooking one of the rivers that feed into the area.  It's located just a few miles from Cabo Espichel, a peninsula which extends into the Atlantic Ocean off of the Setúbal Peninsula.

Throughout its history (including a time as one of the world's most important cities), Portugal's capital city Lisbon has been vulnerable to seaborne invasion.  To cover the approaches to the city from the Atlantic Ocean, various fortresses have been built in the Tagus River estuary to protect the city from such an eventuality.  In this video by contributor Flyingbydaniel, you'll get a bird's eye look at one of these forts: Fort of São Lourenço. Built in the 16th-17th centuries, it now functions as a lighthouse.

Prepare to be amazed by this drone video of the Boca do Inderno ("Hell's Mouth"), a rock formation on the coast of Portugal near Cascais.  Cascais is the main beach community in the Greater Lisbon region, and it's one of the most popular beach destinations in western Europe.   The unusual look of the rocks here attracted some of the earliest filmmakers; Boca do Inferno appeared in a British silent movie released in 1896, at the very dawn of the motion picture age.  See it from above in this drone video by Paroliaz.

Get a bird's eye view of one of Portugal's most famous lighthouses in this drone video. Cape Espichel Lighthouse lies at the tip of the cape of the same name in Portugal's Setúbal District, which lies just to the south of the capital city and is part of the Grande Lisboa (Greater Lisbon) region.  Built in 1790, the lighthouse provides critical navigation to an area which was known as the Black Coast to British sailors because of its extreme danger to ships headed in and out of Lisbon Harbor.

Some of Portugal's best-known beaches are along the Atlantic Ocean coast of its Sintra Province west of Lisbon.  One of them is Ursa Beach (Praia de Ursa), which lies in the heart of the area, sometimes called the Portuguese Riviera.  The beach gets its name from the giant bear-shaped rock (also known as a sea stack) which sits just off the shore - "ursa" is the Portuguese word for "bear".  Seen here in this excellent drone video by FalconFrame, the beach is one of the country's more iconic natural sights.  

Here's a terrific aerial view of one of the landmarks of the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal: it's a lighthouse atop a small island at the mouth of the Tagus River called Bugio's Lighthouse.  It's situated within the Forte de São Lourenço do Bugio, a 16th century fortress which was built at the mouth of the river to protect Lisbon from the ever-present threat of a seaborne invasion.   The original lighthouse was destroyed in the cataclysmic 1755 earthquake but its replacement continues to be operational.

The Portuguese capital city of Lisbon is closely tied to the city of Almada, which sits on the far (south) side of the River Tagus, over the 25 de Abril Bridge.   The south bank city which lies closest to Lisbon by boat though is actually Cacilhas.  This small town occupies the eastern tip of the strip of land which narrows the Tagus before it ends its journey to the Atlantic; it's directly east of Almada.  Check out this beautiful little town from above in this drone video by contributor deardrone.

Check out this fantastic drone video from Portugal's Arrábida Natural Park.  The park covers an area of about 108 acres (around 40 square mi.) between the town of Sesimbra and the city of Setúbal, more or less due south from Lisbon.  The park is home to a chain of small mountains called the Arrábida cordillera or massif.  The mountains run roughly parallel to the Atlantic Ocean on an east-west axis, more or less on top of the coastline.  The highest peak here is about 500 meters above sea level or a bit over 1.6tk ft.  

One of the great natural wonders of Portugals Greater Lisbon Region is the peninsula known as the Cabo da Roca. Seen here in this drone video by AirVuz contributor Ko Rill, it's a rocky cape whose coastline features numerous beaches which are secluded by the magnificent cliffs that line most of the landform. The cape is located at the western end of the Sintra Mountain range, more or less due west from the capital city.  It has the distinction of being the westernmost point of the entire Eurasian land mass. 

One of the landmarks of Portugal's Sintra province is the Monserrate Palace.  Seen here in this drone video by flymydr8ne, the palace dates to the late 18th century. It was built on the ruins of a structure which was destroyed in the great 1755 Lisbon earthquake.  The building was visited by the great poet Lord Byron in the eary 19th century, who mentioned it in his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.  Extensively modified in the mid-1800's, the manor is part of the Sintra Hills UNESCO World Heritage site.  

The coastline of Portugal's Sintra province northwest of Lisbon is known as the Portuguese Riviera. While it has competition from Algarve and the Centro region, it remains home to some of the country's most popular and beautiful beaches.  In this drone video by flybyzion, you'll get an aerial view of São Julião Beach.  It lies a bit north of Cabo de Roca.  Its appearance is typical of the Portuguese Riviera beaches, most of which are semi-secluded sand beach areas amidst the otherwise rocky coastline.

Cabo Espichel is a prominent peninsula on Portugal's Atlantic Ocean coastline.  It's part of the municipality of Sesimbra in the Setúbal District south of Lisbon.  The region around the cape is culturally distinct, in part due to the limited Roman penetration that occurred here compared to most of the rest of Portugal.  Seen here in this drone video by content creator and pilot HJMRAPOSO, the cape is home to an important lighthouse.  The lighthouse was constructed in 1790 on the site of an old hermitage.  

Portugal's Fort of São Vicente was constructed in the early 1800's on the orders of England's Duke of Wellington, who commanded the allied armies combating Napoleon Bonaparte's forces during the Peninsular War.  The fortification was designed to protect the nearby Portuguese capital city of Lisbon from the threat posed by French forces.  Seen from above in this drone video by contributor SJetMan, the Y-shaped São Vicente was considered one of the strongest positions in Europe.  

Azenhas do Mar is a charming village on the coast of Portugal, about a half-hour drive from Lisbon.  Seen here in this stunning drone video by AirVuz contributor FalconFrame, the village is perched atop a hill overlooking a beautiful beach.  Characterized by white houses with red roofs, the town lies in the heart of the Portuguese Riviera, the stretch of coastline which runs north of Cascais, in the province of Sintra.  This area is home to some of the country's most well known beaches for sunbathers as well as for surfers.  

The Sintra Mountains (Serra de Sintra) are one of the natural wonders of Portugal.  The small range runs to the east of the resort town of Cabo de Roca in the Sintra Province, about a half-hour drive northwest of Lisbon.  The mountains have a maximum elevation of about 530 meters about sea level (around 1.7k ft.).  Home to the magnificent Romantacist landmark Pena Palace, the range also features a rich variety of flora and fauna. In this drone video by Francisco Rodrigues, you'll aerially ride along for a hike into these fabled hills.  

Contributor guydrory created this awesome aerial view of one of Portugal's most famous rock formations.  It's called the Boca do Inferno, which translates to "Hell's Mouth".  It's essentially a seaside cave in the cliffs here where the action of the ocean causes water to shoot out of a mouth-like opening.  It's located near Cascasis, a town in the stretch of the coast known as the Portuguese Riviera, west of Lisbon.  It has the distinction of being the first cave to have appeared in a movie, a 1896 British silent.  

Located a bit to the northwest of the capital city Lisbon, Sintra is home to some of the greatest natural and cultural treasures of Portugal.  The natural treasures include its spectacular rocky beaches (Ursa being the most well known) as well as the Sintra Mountains which overlook the ocean.  The cultural treasures of the province include Pena Palace, one of the finest Baroque style palaces in Europe.  All are on display here from a bird's eye point of view in this drone video by contributor Francisco Rodriguez.    

Get an aerial view of some of the top sights of Lisbon, Portugal in this drone video by Jean-Thomas.  The video features footage of the following locations in the Portugues capital city: Lisbon Cathedral (Cathédrale Sé), Sao Jorge Castle, Graça Church and Convent, the Monastery of São Vicente, the National Panthéon, Belem Tower, the Monument of the Discoveries, the Monastery of Hiéronymites (Jerónimos), the Christ the King Statue, and more, including some spots in the neighboring Sintra province.