tripper.pt

I’ve written plenty about Alfama and Mouraria and how the charm of visiting the old neighborhoods is all about letting yourself go. Graça is the neighborhood of vilas and pátios, the blocks of buildings made by factory owners in the 19th century for their workers who were coming to Lisbon, mostly from the farms in the south. It’s a steep hill, one that’s not amusing to walk up, on a scorching summer day, but it’s blessed by the two best viewpoints in Lisbon. I suggest doing Alfama first, then Graça, and finally Mouraria.

It also condenses so much of Lisbon’s identity in one go: the yellow tram 24E, the art museum of a local artist born on June 13th (the day of the city when everyone is going nuts about popular saints and sardines), the grand reinvention of the city after the 1755 earthquake led by Pombal. Tram 24E, that connects Chiado to Amoreiras, is underrated for tourists but was a major win for a local association of Lisbon residents who lobbied to get this route reopened. But there’s more to tram 24E than convenience to get to a part of the city not served by Metro and that’s the stop at Jardim das Amoreiras. From the museum, you can walk back to the tram stop and get on the tram again to Amoreiras (which is the next stop, R. Amoreiras) or walk there.

But cultural conceptions apart, there are three areas in Lisbon that fit those criteria of rebirth: Baixa, Chiado, and Bairro Alto. * Bairro Alto – early 1980s, after the democratic revolution of 25 April 1974; * Chiado – 1991 to 2001, after the great fire of 1988. Originally built after another big earthquake that hit Lisbon in 1531, Bairro Alto was always a symbol of transgression but that became more apparent in the first years that followed the fall of the conservative dictatorship. A team led by Portuguese architect Siza Vieira was in charge of the project and it took 10 years (1991-2001) to rebuild Chiado as the commercial bustling area you see now.

I know it happened over some time, but I always feel like the transformation of Cais do Sodré from a sort of Red Light District (that’s a very polite way to put it) to hipster nightlife hotspot happened overnight. If you skip the clearly gentrified areas (and beware that I don’t include cafes like The Mill, Hello Kristof, and Dear Breakfast in the gentrification problem), there’s a raw Lisbon to discover. Exploring the three streets of the triangle (Poiais de São Bento, São Bento, and And among all that, on a side street of Poiais de São Bento, a warehouse-turned-museum designed by Siza Vieira houses the Atelier Museu Júlio Pomar.