Parque Florestal de Monsanto

The Parque Florestal de Monsanto (Monsanto Forest Park) covers the hills on the western side of Lisbon and is the city’s largest green space. It’s a planted forest: the council describes how the once bare, dry Serra de Monsanto was turned into a woodland that now looks after itself almost entirely. The park has recently turned 90. Today it holds picnic parks, viewpoints, sports clubs and a council nature centre among the trees.

This page is about the forest park in Lisbon. If you’re looking for the granite hilltop village near the Spanish border, that’s Monsanto in Idanha-a-Nova.

Because the park is so large, it helps to have a base. For families, the best one is the Centro de Interpretação de Monsanto (the Monsanto interpretation centre), run by Lisbon City Council on Estrada do Barcal. Everything on this page is on or next to that road.

The interpretation centre is the council’s front door to the forest. Inside there’s an auditorium, a multipurpose room, a children’s room, exhibition spaces and a café. Outside there are two car parks, a picnic park and a children’s playground, which makes it an easy place to arrive with small children and a bag of sandwiches.

The permanent exhibition, “9 Décadas do Parque Florestal de Monsanto” (nine decades of Monsanto Forest Park), was made for the 90th anniversary. It shows how the bare hillside became a forest, introduces the animals and plants that live there, and explains how the trees clean the air for the rest of Lisbon. It’s free, you can drop in between 10:00 and 16:30 without booking, and guided group visits can be arranged by email.

The council lists the centre’s activities for schools, families and the general public on its Lisboa Green Hub site. They include guided visits, workshops, walks and education programmes.

Next to the centre is the Espaço da Biodiversidade (biodiversity area), a fenced and certified 16-hectare reserve created in 1993. Traffic, pets and large crowds are kept out, so it’s much quieter than the rest of the park and better for spotting wildlife.

Inside there’s an observation tower, an artificial lake that recreates a wetland with its own plants and animals, cork oaks whose bark has never been stripped, and an old water mine. It also holds a plant nursery used for teaching, a FitoETAR (a planted system for cleaning waste water) and LxCRAS, the city’s rescue centre for wild animals. Guided visits for the general public are free, with registration by email through the centre. The guides explain the history and geology of the park as well as its wildlife.

One of Monsanto’s surprises is an archery range in the trees. The Arco Clube Ar Livre (ACAL) was founded in 1998 and practises recurve, compound and longbow archery as well as crossbow. Its members have won national titles and international medals in field archery.

The club runs beginners’ sessions (“aulas de iniciação”) every Saturday morning at its range at Estrada do Barcal, Monte das Perdizes 10. You reach it through the car park of the former shooting club (Clube de Tiro a Chumbo). The club’s own pages give start times of 10:15 or 10:30 and finish times of 12:30, while the archery federation’s page says 10:30 to 13:00 and describes the sessions as free and open to the public. Booking in advance by email or through the club’s Facebook page is compulsory.

None of the pages give a minimum age, so email the club before you go to check that your child is old enough. For regular junior archery in the city, the Ginásio Clube Português runs training groups for ages 9 to 14.

During the school year, the centre offers free guided activities for school groups of pre-school to secondary age. A home-education group could ask whether it can join. A few that suit children well:

• “Brincar e Sentir o Parque” (play and feel the park): a sensory walk where children smell rosemary, lavender and bay and work out a tree’s age. Pre-school to year 9.
• “Entre raízes e minhocas” (among roots and earthworms): a quiet wildlife hunt looking for tracks, feathers and marks on trees, for primary-age children.
• “Jardineiros da Floresta” (forest gardeners): sowing, taking cuttings and potting native plants in the teaching nursery, and tending a small vegetable plot. Pre-school to year 6.
• “Rota das Claraboias” (skylight route): a walk along the water route through the park that ends with a crossing of the Aqueduto das Águas Livres, Lisbon’s 18th-century aqueduct, subject to the aqueduct being open for visits.

The centre also runs free “banhos de floresta” (forest bathing) walks for teenagers and adults: slow, quiet walks that focus on the sounds and smells of the woods.

The interpretation centre isn’t the only place to play. Two other council parks in Monsanto are built around children, and there’s a skate park in the trees.

The Parque Recreativo do Alto da Serafina, on Estrada da Serafina, is known locally as the Parque dos Índios because of its tepee-style tents. Time Out calls it one of the busiest playgrounds in Lisbon. It has a play area for children up to 5 and a separate one for ages 6 to 12, a picnic park and a maze. The part children remember is a small road circuit with zebra crossings, traffic lights and road signs, where they can practise riding a bike or skating like a driver in town. At the top is a viewpoint over the city. Time Out lists it as open every day from 09:00 to 20:00 between 1 April and 30 September, and from 09:00 to 18:00 between 1 October and 31 March.

The Parque do Alvito, on the Alcântara side of the forest, was Lisbon’s first playground, designed in the 1940s by the architect Keil do Amaral. It became famous for having a real aeroplane and a real tram to climb on. Time Out now describes tents, a train and a wooden caravel (the sailing ship of the Portuguese voyages of discovery), along with a picnic area, a café with a terrace and a football pitch, open every day from 09:00 to 20:00.

The Skatepark de Monsanto sits beside Estrada de Montes Claros, close to the Keil do Amaral picnic park. NiT says it opened in 2015 and is one of the biggest in the city, and Time Out says it was remodelled in 2018 and has plenty of shade, which matters in a Lisbon summer. One side has a bowl with ramps of different heights, lines to ride, hips and extensions. The other is for street skating, on two platforms of different heights and difficulty, so a beginner can stay on the lower one. No rules or hours are published, so bring a helmet and pads and let younger riders go when it’s quiet.

The council runs several picnic parks (“parques de merendas”) across Monsanto. The request form lists Alvito, Cruz das Oliveiras, Keil do Amaral, Moinho do Penedo, Parque da Pedra, São Domingos de Benfica, Vila Guiné, Calhau, the interpretation centre and the Miradouro da Escarpa on Estrada do Alvito. Groups planning an event request a space with the council form, and the rules say lighting fires and using any cooking equipment is not allowed.

• Toddlers: the playgrounds, including the under-5s area at Alto da Serafina, the picnic parks and short, flat stretches near the centre.
• Ages 4 to 8: the playground, the exhibition’s animals and a gentle walk around the biodiversity area looking for birds at the lake.
• Ages 9 to 12: the observation tower, the history of how the forest was planted, the wildlife rescue centre and the chance to ask about archery.
• Teenagers: archery on Saturdays, the skate park, forest bathing and longer walks through the woods.

The park is large and hilly, so treat it as several separate places. Park at the interpretation centre rather than trying to explore the whole forest in one go. The centre keeps shorter hours on Sundays and holidays, when it opens at 13:00. In autumn and winter the council’s timetable lists weekday hours for Mondays and Saturdays only, so phone +351 218 170 200 before a midweek trip. The guided biodiversity visits need booking, and so does archery.

Nothing here is a drop-off activity; children stay with their parents or group leaders.

Also in Monsanto is Hello Park Monsanto, which has its own page. Lisbon Zoo is a short drive away, and the council’s water route links the forest with the Aqueduto das Águas Livres. For animals and farm jobs on the other side of the city, try the free Quinta Pedagógica dos Olivais.

Is Monsanto park free?

Yes. The forest park, the interpretation centre, its exhibition and the guided biodiversity visits are free. The archery club’s Saturday beginners’ sessions were listed as free when checked.

Is there a playground in Monsanto?

Yes, several. There’s one outside the interpretation centre on Estrada do Barcal, next to a picnic park, café and toilets. The Parque dos Índios at Alto da Serafina has separate areas for under-5s and 6 to 12s and a mini road circuit for bikes, and the Parque do Alvito has a wooden caravel and a café.

Can you have a barbecue in Monsanto?

No. The council’s picnic park rules say fires and cooking equipment are not allowed. Bring a cold picnic.

How old do you have to be for archery at Monsanto?

The club doesn’t publish a minimum age. Email arcoclubearlivre@gmail.com before your first Saturday to ask and to book your place.

Is this the same as the village of Monsanto?

No. Parque Florestal de Monsanto is a forest park in Lisbon. The historic village of Monsanto is in Idanha-a-Nova, near the Spanish border.