CHIADO's fashion

Chiado was chosen as the first home of the large department stores. The Grandes Armazens do Chiado and a little further down, the Grandella were the most famous, but both were destroyed in the great fire that swept through Rua do Carmo, Rua Nova do Almada, Rua do Crucifixo and Rua Garrett in 1988.

MARINA TAVARES DIAS 

in Tourist's Lisbon

BAIXA – DOWNTOWN LISBON

The Rua Nova, 

with its arcades and selling spots,

was the centre of Renaissance Lisbon

(drawing: Alberto de Souza)

From the era of the Discoveries, the Baixa – or downtown Lisbon (situated between Rossio and the present location of Praça do Comércio) has boasted of all kinds of shops. Before the 1755 earthquake, the area was considerably different from what it is nowadays: it had a maze of winding, narrow streets with countless dead-ends. However, the main street was already the Rua Nova dos Mercadores (New Mercant Street). When being drawn up by the Marquis of Pombal's engineers after the earthquake, the new downtown area respected local, centuries-old tradition. The new streets, a lot wider now, were named according to the kind of trade going on there: Rua do Ouro (for the goldsmiths); Rua da Prata (for the silversmiths); Rua dos Douradores (Gilders Street); Rua dos Correeiros (Leather Merchants Street); Rua dos Franqueiros (Cutlery Merchants Street), etc.

Marina Tavares Dias

in Lisbon for the Tourist Who Loves History

MOURARIA

MARINA TAVARES DIAS

(LISBOA DESAPARECIDA, volume I):

«Until the 1950s, the traditional quarter called Mouraria was very much larger that what it is today. Many of its streets and historical buildings were demolished at a time during which it was believed that areas housing the common folk were both lacking in interest and very unhealthy. In the western part of Mouraria, only the Hermitage called Nossa Senhora da Saúde (built in 1705) was left standing. The Socorro Church and the Alegrete Palace were demolished between 1949 and 1951. The old Apollo Theatre disappeared in 1956. Even the last archway of the old walls built during King Fernando's reign was knocked down at the start of the 1960s. Decades passed without the Lisbon City Council knowing how to mend the gaping wound left in city's historical centre. Reconstruction work was only completed a few months ago on the area known today as Praça Martim Moniz (a square named in honour of the hero who had won Lisbon for the Christians). The solution to the problem lay in providing ample pedestrian walks and a network of fountains where once, long ago, houses had been. [,,,]»

BY THE SEASIDE

By the beautiful sea.

Owing to the fact that Lisbon was built on a river estuary, the city has always lived side-by-side with the beach. Nevertheless, the fashion of spending summers at the seaside only took hold in the second half of the 19th century. 

The industrial revolution had brought thousands of families into the city to seek their fortunes in the terrible conditions of daily life in the factories. In fewer than one hundred years, a sunburned skin which had previously been the exclusive attribute of the peasantry, had now become a luxury. 

The most popular beaches thronged by Lisbon's population were almost within the city itself. Belém and Pedrouços were at the height of fashion in around 1860. 

During this period, wealthy families enjoyed spending the month of August in the surrounding countryside and the month of September at the seaside. In those days, Cascais was still thought to be too far away for convenience. Until, one day, it was reached by rail and the court of king Luiz set up residence there.

Apollo Theatre, in downtown Lisbon,

shortly before demolition in 1956.

Photo: Novaes Studios