Bairro Alto and Estrela

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t The museum’s walls and pretty gardens

Experience Bairro Alto and Estrela

Laid out in a grid pattern in the late 16th century, the hilltop Bairro Alto was first settled by rich citizens who moved out of the disreputable Alfama. By the 19th century it had become a run-down area, attracting both prostitutes and a young bohemian crowd, and it soon developed into the city’s main nightlife area. Small shops, family-run tascas (cheap restaurants) and bars moved in to form a district little changed today.

In contrast, the nearby elegant commercial district known as the Chiado is home to some of the city’s oldest shops and cafés. Many of the area’s original Belle Époque buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1988, but cleverly restored by architect Álvaro Siza Vieira around the turn of the century. To the northwest, the Estrela quarter is centred on a huge domed basilica, built in 1790, while the smart district of Lapa, to the southwest, was laid out in the mid-18th century.

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