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

LISBON: THE LAST LIGHT IN EUROPE'S DARKNESS

In 1939, a few months after World War II began, a French advertisement distributed by the «Casa de Portugal em Paris» (The House of Portugal in Paris) seems to be premonitory. It recalls how Lisbon is the natural depart for the other side of the Atlantic and the rest of the world.
When, later, France herself was occupied by the nazi regime, hundreds of thousands of Europeans escaped through this «golden light city», where they were welcome and secure. Lisbonne, «Europe's harbour» between nightmare and safety.

Marina Tavares Dias has a book about the War Years in Lisbon.
It is called LISBOA NOS ANOS 40 | LONGE DA GUERRA.

The peaceful Revolution of 1974

This photograph, taken in LISBON, on the early hours of April 25, 1974, does not look like the picture of a revolution. Yet it is. Of a particularly peaceful one that, on that same day, ended a 48 year old dictatorship. 

One of the soldiers had left the tank to make a call from the phone booth (the public telephone was the only option in those days, and still safer than any cellphone). The poster calls for an «evolution without revolution». But the future was already on the march.

Today in PORTUGAL we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 25th of April. 

The MARINA TAVARES DIAS ARCHIVES

FADO – THE SONGS ABOUT FATE

«The fado was born one day/ When hardly a breeze was whispering/ And the sea merged into the sky/ In the tacking of a sailing ship/ In the breast of a sailor-boy/ Who was singing in his melancholy» – so goes the poem written by José Régio and sung by Amália Rodrigues. The real origins of Lisbon’s traditional song are probably much more recent than the era of the Discoveries. There is no written record of the fado before the 19th century. Its melody, which is thought to be the successor of the «lundum» danced by black slaves in Brazil, follows a four-line stanza where each line has a 10-syllable count. But aboveall, it reflects a state of spirit, sad and nostalgic, that Lisbon has made its own. During the 19th century, the fado (the song about fate) was sung all over Lisbon, from Calçada de Carriche to the flat-bottomed boats of the River Tagus, through the taverns of Bairro Alto and the narrow streets of Mouraria. The poignant plucking of guitars was heard in Arco do Cego and in Madre de Deus, in Lumiar and in Laranjeiras, in the Quebra-Bilhas tavern and in the bullring at Campo de Santana. The fado was sung markets, in brothels and in palaces.»

LISBOA/LISBON/LISBONNE/LISSABON - A sua história para os turistas / for the tourist who loves History, book by MARINA TAVARES DIAS, 1992.

1825. The sailor's goodbye

ROMAN PERIOD LISBON

A city set on the estuary of a river, white when seen from a distance and golden when looking out from one of the panoramic viewing points as evening approaches. Afterwards, narrow and deserted when going down some of its streets and discovering the usual everyday routes, the traffic and derelict sites – scenes of unhappy endings. The Lisbon which fascinated all its victors is, nevertheless, largely unknown.

Situated as it is in a typically Mediterranean environment, Lisbon's origins as a city probably go back to Roman times. It must have gradually grown outwards from the crown of the hill on which the castle was built, its first inhabitants moving downwards in the direction of the river.

«As much as my gaze searches the fortified walls of St. George's castle, I am hard put to find the first traces of Lisbon», wrote Júlio Castillo, whose name is a «must» in any reference list about the Lisbon. Despite his rather disheartening comment, this did not stop him from publishing 18 volumes about the city's early days.

As early as 2000 BC, there were already people living in the hilly countryside around Lisbon called Serra de Monsanto. Later, ancient Greek and Phoenician ships were to make their way up the Tagus estuary and we cannot dismiss the likelihood of Phoenician etymology lying behind the word «Lisboa» (Alis Ubbo – pleasant little bay). Be that as it may, this conjecture is a lot less fascinating than another possible theory about the city's name which was aired in the 15th and 16th century (although, today, we have to admit that it is only based on legend). It stated that Ulysses, the ancient Greek hero, had given the city its name.

After the conquest of Lusitania and Galicia, Lisbon was occupied by the Romans and, in 205 BC, raised to the status of a municipality under the name Felicitas Julia Olissipo.

The Roman part of the city has survived until the present day but is buried three or four metres under existing buildings. Little by little it is being unearthed although it is almost impossible to dig up and show everything owing to the streets built over it at a later date.


The most famous ruins discovered here include a theatre dedicated to Nero built in 57 AD (underneath the intersection of Rua São Mamede and Rua da Saudade at the top of Rua da Madalena), and the portuary facilities in (now under) Rua da Prata, built when Tiberius was emperor. Both sites were discovered as a result of excavations after the 1755 earthquake.

MARINA TAVARES DIAS

text and photo