Banhos de São Paulo Headquarters

Behind this building on Travessa do Carvalho, revolutionaries plotted the fall of a 771 year old monarchy. The Banhos de São Paulo, a humble public bathhouse built in 1850, became the secret command center that changed Portuguese history forever. For decades, this thermal spa served the city's poorest residents, offering healing baths with medicinal waters pumped from springs near Praça do Comércio.

But in October 1910, republican conspirators chose its discreet rooms to coordinate their uprising against King Manuel II. Here, military officers and civilians planned every detail of the revolt that would end centuries of royal rule. On the night of October 3, tension filled these halls. The next evening, Admiral Cândido dos Reis arrived at the bathhouse expecting to lead the naval forces. Instead, someone delivered devastating news: the revolution had failed. The information was completely false, but the admiral believed it. Broken and despairing, Cândido dos Reis walked to his sister's house in Arroios.

There, he shot himself. His body was found the next morning, October 5, the same day the Republic was proclaimed from the City Hall balcony. He died just hours before his life's dream became reality, never knowing the revolution had succeeded. The building still stands, its walls holding one of the most tragic ironies in Portuguese history.