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

LISBON CRIES

The selling cries of Lisbon's
STREET VENDORS

by MARINA TAVARES DIAS:


For many centuries, generation upon generation of Lisbon dwellers lived almost exclusively on products sold in the streets. Innumerable peddlers populated the streets all over the city, hawking all the wares needed in daily life: water, milk, fish, fruit, vegetables, cured sausages, olive oil, paraffin, coal, shirts, caps and scarves, shoes, knives, vases, chairs or lampshades. Broad beans were sold in a stew with gravy (called «fava-rica»); apart from being knife-grinders, tinkers also mended umbrellas; boys whittled toothpicks while girls made flowers to decorate hats. Each product had a different cry or call announcing it and many of them were sung. Some of them became famous, like the cry of the fishwives singing out «Viva da Costa!» – «Alive from the Coast!», or the call of the newpaper kids: «Século-Nooootícias!».

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. [,,,]»

FEIRA DA LADRA – THE FLEA MARKET

«He who has not seen the Feira da Ladra even once has no idea how much vitality death has!» – so wrote Júlio de Castilho. The Flea Market is as old as the conquest of Lisbon itself and its name «Feira da Ladra» appeared for the first time in a municipal ordinance of 1610. But the market still held today (every Tuesday and Saturday) at Campo de Santa Clara has only been held since 1882. Before that, it was situated at Campo Santana, in a square called Praça da Alegria and near St. George’s Castle. 

The famous curse cast on the Santa Engrácia Church lasted four long centuries. It was once said by an unfortunate man condemned to die while protesting his innocence that he would be avenged and the work going on at the time to build the church would never be done. At long last, the dome was finally finished (with the use of concrete) during the 1960’s. Before this date, all photographs of the church showed its incomplete state.

MARINA TAVARES DIAS

in LISBON FOR THE TOURIST WHO LOVES HISTORY

THE FATEFUL CONFLUENCE OF RIVERS

As from the 15th century, the centre of Lisbon was established in a deep valley which had been covered by river waters many centuries before. It was a swampy piece of ground forking off into two riverbeds that had long-since dried up. During the Iron Age, these two small tributaries of the River Tagus ran along courses that were later to become the two first avenues in Lisbon, Avenida da Liberdade and Avenida Almirante Reis. 

The broad valley where they converged was to become Rossio. Curiously enough, the sound of underground running water may still be heard in the cellars of the D. Maria II Theatre. The whole of northern Rossio’s area lies on the confluence of rivers. This has always been held responsible for all kinds of disasters happening there. 

Fire destroyed the National Theatre (1964) and the S. Domingos Church (1959) and before them, fire also gutted the Inquisitional Palace along with the tragic records stored in there. One such record has to do a famous playwright known as «The Jew» who, after being imprisoned in Rossio, was burned at the stake in Terreiro do Paço (the Royal Palace Grounds) in 1739. Some say the confluence of rivers is answerable for many of the Inquisition’s tragedies. [...]

Marina Tavares Dias 

in 

LISBON FOR THE TOURIST WHO LOVES HISTORY