Alvalade - A Tour

Let's take a tour of Alvalade, our new neighborhood. It's in the north of Lisbon, very near the airport. Tourists don't tend to venture this far from the river, so it has a local feel. Developed as a post-war, mixed-class housing solution, our particular area of Alvalade is made from two older parishes that were both absorbed by Alvalade as the neighborhood grew to the north: Campo Grande and São João de Brito. It is bounded on one side by the "exclamation point" of the long urban park of Jardim de Campo Grande and the Rotunda de Entrecampos, and extends to the round-about at the Largo Frei Heitor Pinto.

Igreja Paroquial do Santos Reis Magos do Campo Grande is our local church; big name little building. Parts of it date from the late 1700's, when it was rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. The building has a surprisingly opulent altar and a wonderful painted ceiling from the 1880's. It is quite tiny, but the peal of the bell rings across the Jardim throughout the day, and marks time for the folks jogging and playing there.

 

The main shopping street is the Avenida da Igreja, between Avenida de Roma and Avenida do Rio de Janeiro. The Avenida is full of busy shops: pastries, barbecue, regional goods, spices, ice cream. It's lively and local. It's wide streets and old buildings, but for the 1950's church (Igreja de São João de Brito) (see the pano below). In front of the Igreja, in the round-about, is a wiry sculpture looking a bit like a large hammock frame; it says "1° Travessia Aérea", which either means "first air crossing" or "area first in traffic".

But Alvalade's big attraction and resource is the Mercado de Alvalade Norte – like a hangar, but featuring fresh fish, and fruits and vegetables (Anthony Bourdain shot a segment of "No Reservations" here - scrub to 35:35). There are also queijarias and pastelarias selling cheeses and olives, cookies and breads. Plus there's a little midway down one side selling aprons, shoes, bags, and other household goods. In the middle is a playground for the kids, but the kids are ignoring that and whizzing around the wide aisles on their scooters. Customers, the locals, are a mix of young families and older couples. Welcome to the neighborhood.