Have you stayed at Tings Lisbon you will love Graça anno 1930
Before your sightseeing - check out this footage from 1930
A few years ago – around the time we started the construction of Tings Lisbon – I found the unique footage below: 13 minutes with our whole neighborhood, shot in 1930.
This morning I re-saw it for the first time since then. A completely different experience because of all the stories and all the people we know after having our daily life here Senhora do Monte for almost 5 years.
So I have decided to pick a few areas from the movies and present them with gossip anekdotes, a few facts and our own personal relations to people living there, existing businesses, associations etc.
In the video you see the following churches: Penha de França, S. Vicente de Fora, Graça, Feira da Ladra (the flea market) Graça Miradouro, Miradouro da Senhora do Monte, Miradouro da Santa Luzia, statue of Júlio de Castilho, Estrela d'Ouro ... and daily life with charismatic locals.
Foreigners forcing the locals out of their homes is 'old news'
Agapito Serra Fernandes was head of Bairro Estrela d’Ouro – the beautiful neighborhood 100 down the road from us.
He was Galician businessman based in Lisbon where he owned the beautiful farm (aka Quinta) Terra da Senhora do Monte from 1904 and the building down on the corner of Rua da Graça that functioned as the entrance to the neighborhood. In other words – he basically owned the whole hill.
Informations about him and his activities are few. But he is the one behind all the two-storey houses with the small yards, small 1st floor balconies and small cheap flats for the poor workers that used to live in tents on the hill….
…. or something like that. The information is scarce and all of it in Portuguese.
Anyway – Bairro Estrela Douro is very beautiful and charming with small hidden gems among the AirBnB’s…
Today the old Quinta works as an elderly home (the interior is like going 100 years back in time) and its attached garden as a nursery that brings out a bag of organic fruit, vegetables and flowers every week.
And on the top floor in the red house on the corner to your right – from Rua da Senhora do Monte we have our local live venue Camones Cine Bar with live events every evening.
A few stills from the film
Bairro Estrela d’Ouro’ is one of Graça’s 3 architectonic gems. The other two are Villa Sousa and Villa Bertha. You can see all three in less than 15 min on the way to the flea market, Alfarme, Graça Miradouro or just down town.
You exit Tings Lisbon (A) and turn right and follow the map below. When you rach Villa Sousa (G) have a coffee og drink at the legendary Botequim and decide where to go from here.
Enjoy
