L
isbon feels like it has just woken up from a very long
slumber. Even on the day we arrive — a national holiday
when the streets are festooned with crepe paper and
crowds line up for fresh sardines grilling on impromptu
barbecues — the riverfront city has a sleepy air, layeredwith nostalgia. There are 1930s-era wooden trams that screech
around steep corners; rattling funicular railways that have been
lurching uphill since 1884; lovely old Art Nouveau and Art Deco
storefronts, untouched for a century; ruined attics sprouting weeds;
tile-covered façades that have survived since the 17th century;
dilapidated but elegant neighbourhoods that elsewhere would have
been polished, gentrified and seen their value skyrocket.
Lisbon is a moody, romantic city. Lisboetas, as they are known,
carry around with them a sense of saudade, or profound melancholy
and nostalgia, expressed by the singers in the fado clubs of Alfama,
the steep neighbourhood of red-tiled houses that was established by
the Moors in the eighth century. Perhaps because of this tendency to
be reflective, Lisbon has long been the forgotten cousin of European
glamour cities such as Paris and Rome, despite being one of the
oldest cities in Western Europe and the hub of the great Portuguese
trading expeditions during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The economic crisis of 2008 was felt strongly here. But this has
finally worked in the Portuguese capital’s favour, as disaffected
Europeans, the French in particular, seek to relocate to more
affordable cities, ones with strong cultural history and an inventory
of elegant buildings ripe for restoration. Lisbon’s position on the
wide Tagus River near where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean —
close to unspoilt beaches, the popular holiday destination of the
Algarve, the vineyards of the Douro Valley, and landscapes rich with
magnificent old castles and villas — makes it irresistible for many.
Lisbon’s awakening has meant there is much construction and
renovation going on in the older neighbourhoods. There are new
hotels, such as the gleaming white hillside Memmo Alfama; newly
fashionable shopping districts, such as Principe Real, where
a neo-Moorish mansion houses a collection of hip boutiques;
and new cultural hotspots, such as the Fábrica Braço de Prata »
clockwise from top left: Rossio
railway station. Paris em Lisboa,
a French emporium in Chiado.
The No. 25 tram in Santos.
A server at A Vide Portuguese.
opposite page: a street in Prazeres.