Largo do Carmo and the Carmo Barracks

At five in the morning on 25 April 1974, the director of the political police, Silva Pais, telephoned Marcelo Caetano: “Mr President, the Revolution is out in the streets!” (Senhor Presidente, a Revolução está na rua!) — and advised him to go to the GNR barracks in Largo do Carmo. The President of the Council (head of government) arrived with his military aide, and was joined by the minister Moreira Baptista and Admiral Henrique Tenreiro.² According to Jofre Alves’s chronology, it was Maria de Lurdes Rocha, head of cleaning and laundry at the barracks, who hurriedly made up five rooms for the besieged government.⁶

At about 12:30, the column of Salgueiro Maia, which had climbed up from the Rossio along Rua do Carmo through the crowd, surrounded the barracks. People brought food, milk and cigarettes to the soldiers. In the early afternoon, forces loyal to the regime tried to encircle the besieging force from Largo de Camões, the Misericórdia and the Chiado; the arrival of Cavalry Regiment No. 3, from Estremoz, foiled the manoeuvre.³

At 15:10, through a loudhailer, Maia gave ten minutes for the surrender; at 15:25, a Chaimite armoured car fired bursts at the top of the façade. At 16:00 an emissary arrived with a message from General Spínola, and Caetano decided to surrender — “so that power does not fall into the street” (assim o poder não cai na rua) — asking for power to be handed over to a general officer.¹

Spínola arrived late in the afternoon, by car, through a crowd singing the national anthem. Shortly after 18:30, the Chaimite “Bula” reversed in through the main gate and took Caetano, Rui Patrício and Moreira Baptista to the Pontinha barracks. The siege was lifted at 19:30.⁵ After the surrender, a few hundred metres away, the DGS fired on the crowd on Rua António Maria Cardoso.⁵

Right after the 1926 coup, the barracks had been the first home of press censorship: the service worked here from 22 June 1926 to 1934.⁹ On 11 March 1975, GNR officers arrested the commander-general here, along with other officers loyal to the Armed Forces Movement, and the square filled with people once again.⁷⁸

Today the barracks houses the GNR Museum. In the spring of 2025, the Salão Nobre (state room), the command offices and a balcony overlooking the Rossio were opened to the public, free of charge.¹³