Lisbon at Christmas and New Year: What Closes and When

Which monuments close on which day

Each monument sets its own holiday closures, and they do not match. This is the 2026–27 calendar built from each operator's page:

Jerónimos Monastery and Belém Tower. The monuments' visit page lists the closed days as Mondays, 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 May, 13 June and 25 December. Otherwise both open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 to 17:30, with last entry at 17:00 and the ticket office closing at 16:30. The page lists no special hours for 24 or 31 December. It also warns that tickets often sell out and cannot then be bought on the day.

São Jorge Castle. The castle's hours page closes it on 1 January, 1 May, and 24, 25 and 31 December. From 1 November it opens daily 9:00 to 18:00, last admission 17:30, and the walls and towers also close at 17:30. Its museum is temporarily closed for work on the toilets (page modified 19 October 2026).

Pena and the Sintra parks. Parques de Sintra's FAQ says its parks and monuments open every day except 24 and 25 December and 31 December and 1 January. The opening times page lists one set of hours with no winter version: Pena Park 9:00 to 19:00 and Pena Palace 9:30 to 18:30, with the last palace ticket at 17:30 and entry only at your booked time. The Moorish Castle runs 9:30 to 18:00.

New Year's Eve in Praça do Comércio

Lisbon's main New Year party is a free open-air concert in Praça do Comércio (also called Terreiro do Paço), on the river. For the last edition, Visit Lisboa's event page listed music from 21:30, a fireworks display at midnight over the Tejo, and DJ sets continuing into the early morning, with free entry. It named the Metro to Terreiro do Paço, tram 15E and bus 794 as the ways in.

That page describes the 2025/26 edition. The 2026/27 line-up and times were not published when we checked on 22 October 2026.

Getting home: Metro and buses over the holidays

The Metro's timetable page says trains run from 6:30 to 1:00 every day, weekends and public holidays included, and that you reach any station on your line if you board by 1:00. Christmas and New Year are not listed as exceptions, but the company decides holiday-night changes each December. For 2025, a Metro statement reported by Diário de Notícias kept 1:00 as the closing time on both 24 and 31 December. In 2024 the Metro had closed at 22:00 on Christmas Eve and run until 3:00 on New Year's Eve.

So plan on the Metro stopping at 1:00 after the fireworks unless a later closing is announced. After that, the 2025 press reports describe Carris night buses running a full service with extra vehicles at Cais do Sodré, Rossio and Santa Apolónia, and extra CP trains to Sintra and Cascais. Carris had not published 2026 holiday timetables when we checked.

For prices and booking at each monument, see São Jorge Castle tickets, Jerónimos and Belém Tower tickets and Pena Palace time slots.