Page 89 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

Restaurants and bars spilling onto to the lively streets of Bairro Alto

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 the
young bohemian set, 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 Viera 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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