“Bloody Night” at the Arsenal

This place carries the memory of Portugal's darkest political night, when a "ghost truck" roamed these streets hunting down leaders who had shaped the young Republic. On October 19, 1921, a military coup forced Prime Minister António Granjo to resign. But as darkness fell, something far more sinister began. Corporal Abel Olímpio, nicknamed "Gold Tooth," commanded a truck filled with Army soldiers, Navy personnel, and National Republican Guard members.

They carried a death list. Granjo fled his home and hid with a friend on Avenida Miguel Bombarda. When the squad found him, they dragged him toward the Navy Arsenal near Terreiro do Paço. As he reached the boarding bridge, a violent mob surrounded him. Some military officers tried pulling him inside the Arsenal for safety, but the crowd overwhelmed them. They killed him with guns and swords right at the entrance. Minutes later, José Carlos da Maia, a celebrated hero of the 1910 Republican Revolution and former Navy Minister, was murdered at the same spot.

In the early hours of October 20, the truck found António Machado Santos, another revolutionary legend, and killed him in Largo do Intendente. By sunrise, six political figures lay dead and one critically wounded. The "Noite Sangrenta" or Bloody Night had claimed revolutionary heroes who had ironically fought to create the very Republic that failed to protect them.