The Contemporary Side to Art The mere mention of this district in Lisbon evokes times of intellectual fervour, of aristocratic elegance, of bohemian lifestyle.
People would come here to see and be seen, to pass judgement on the elegance of clothes and conduct of others, or lack of it.
Here fashions were forged and the news oh the day was discussed. Passing through the cobbled streets of Chiado, Eça de Queiroz would bump into characteres from his books – João da Ega and Carlos da Maia strolling along the Rua do Loreto and across the Largo de Camões. This is also where Fernando Pessoa would sit (and still sits, this time as a bronze statue) on the terrace in front of the Brazileira café.
Chiado for over a century, has been a centre for Portuguese arts and literature. Dancers from the São Carlos theatre, singers from the Academia dos Amadores de Música, painters gathering in the Academy of Fine Arts, poets searching for their muse, journalists sniffing out a story.
And here, in this Lisbon district, with is strong cultural tendencies, home to the São Carlos and São Luiz Theatres, to the National Dance Company, and to the Grémio Literário literary society, we find the Museu do Chiado, opened for the first time in 1911 in the ancient setting of the convent of São Francisco da Cidade, in a building that, following the major fire of 1988, was renovated in 1994 to designs from French architect Jean-Michel Willmonte.
And here, in this Lisbon district, with is strong cultural tendencies, home to the São Carlos and São Luiz Theatres, to the National Dance Company, and to the Grémio Literário literary society, we find the Museu do Chiado, opened for the first time in 1911 in the ancient setting of the convent of São Francisco da Cidade, in a building that, following the major fire of 1988, was renovated in 1994 to designs from French architect Jean-Michel Willmonte.
