The Marquis of Pombal

 

“Tribute is paid to the #Marquis of Pombal in an area of #Lisbon, Rotunda, that should pay homage to the establishment of the Republic (in 1910) because it was there that the Republican barricades were set up. At the time of the Marquis, the area wasn’t even Lisbon, it was part of the Northern suburbs. The homage to the marquis should be in the city centre, the downtown, which he rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake.”

Marina Tavares Dias

interviewed 2020

'Rossio???' - asks the tourist, probably lost in... Rossio

 

Rossio or D. Pedro IV Square?

“The funniest mystery about Lisbon is this: why do some streets and squares have two names? Rossio is also Praça Dom Pedro IV, butno-one calls it that;  Terreiro do Paço is «officially» Praça do Comércio; Campo de Santana «became» Campo dos Mártires da Pátria. Across the decades or even centuries, some of the place names in Lisbon were changed, but the Lisbonese didn’t go along with it and continued to use the original designations. As my grandfather used to say, that’s how you can tell who’s from Lisbon and who’s not. People from outside Lisbon use the name Praça do Comércio instead of Terreiro do Paço, and the same applies to Rossio, Campo de Santana and other places”.

                         ROSSIO IN YHE 1960’S 

Queen Stephanie of Portugal in London (1858)

 

QUEEN STEPHANIE OF PORTUGAL IN LONDON

From the newsparpers of 1858:

«The Queen of Portugal arrived at Buckingham Palace yesterday [May 6] afternoon upon a visit to Her Majesty the Queen [Victoria]. The Queen of Portugal on landing at Dover was received by the Earl of Shefield, Lord in Waiting, and Major-General Wylde, Groom in Waiting to the Prince Consort. Her Majesty, accompanied by her father, the Prince of Hohenzollern, and her brother, Prince Leopold, and attended by her suite, traveled to London by a special train on the South-Eastern Railway»



Investigation: LISBOA DESAPARECIDA, a book by 

Historian MARINA TAVARES DIAS

Photograph: The Queen of Portugal, Princess of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

at the Royal mass in the Portuguese consulate in London.

Detail from a water-colour by the Portuguese miniaturist

Edward of Moira

It was Alis Ubbo to the Phoenicians, Olissipo to the Romans, Al-Ushbuna to the Arabs and Lisboa to the Portuguese. Today it belongs to everyone, and everyone can gaze upon its splendour from the viewpoint at Nossa Senhora do Monte and at the light, refracted by the river, which illuminates its hills and houses.

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

Oh, the Elegant CHIADO!

Chiado, Lisbon's smart quarter, used to be little more than a small steep street (Rua Garrett) lined with shops on either side. But what life! What luxury! What stories to tell! It was the great meeting place of Romantic period. It was there that attentive citizens of Lisbon were able to sound out the latest fashions and the most recent political news. It was there that literary groups were founded; it was there, at the most prestigious theatres, that booing and foot-stamping sessions were organised and many a reputation destroyed in a flash. In 1840, there were cafés in front of whose doors the humble folk would dare not to pass. A few decades later during Lisbon's Belle Époque, Chiado was chosen as the first home of the large department stores. The Grandes Armazéns do Chiado and a little further down, the Grandella department store 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.

Photographs by Joshua Benoliel for

the magazine Illustração Portugueza,

1909-1913