
Views from Penha de França. One of Lisbon’s Seven Hills.
Located in the historic center of Lisbon, Penha de França sits north of São Vicente, east of the vast Arroios, south of Areeiro, and west of Beato. Right by the Tagus River, it is close to Intendente and Anjos (on the Metro’s green line), along with their indie stages and world cuisine.
“A secret’s worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept,” wrote Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón in The Shadow of the Wind.
If Arroios is buzzing, kaleidoscopic, and dizzying in its shapeless vastitude—its borders stretching as far as Saldanha—Penha de França plays the reverse role: an ivory tower. And that’s where you’ll find Portugal's creative youth. “All my friends live there because it’s cheaper, so I go in and out a lot,” said Carlotta, 25, born and still living in Cascais.
Silence is a luxury.
In 2015, The New York Times wrote: “In just a couple of years, about 300 of the motorized, three-wheel vehicles have swarmed Lisbon’s narrow cobblestone streets, offering tourists an alternate way of navigating this hilly city, famous, too, for its network of trams and funiculars.” The increased presence of Tuk Tuk, especially around Chiado and Graça, has become a point of contention for locals. “Some residents say tourist traffic is even stopping them from leaving their homes.”
Climb the steep slopes of Penha de França by bus or on foot, and soon you’ll find yourself in a quiet, residential enclave where the noise stays far below. Gone are the throngs of tourists, Tuk Tuk, and the hustle of Avenida Almirante Reis—all left behind at the base of the hill.

College Amadeu Andrés on the top of Penha de França.

Two viewpoints from Rua Cidade de Manchester.

Invest in Lisbon, and you’ll soon become a bibliophile.
Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world and the second-oldest European capital after Athens, predating other modern European capitals by centuries. In its historical layers, you’ll find pre-Celtic tribes civilized by the Phoenicians, Julius Caesar naming it Felicitas Julia Olissipo, and, following the fall of the Roman Empire, the arrival of Germanic tribes in the 5th century. The Moors then captured Lisbon in the 8th century, holding it for 433 years.
Then came June 16, 1147: the Decisive Battle of Lisbon.
To escape a storm, 164 ships carrying 6,000 English, 5,000 German, and 2,000 Flemish crusaders entered Porto. Afonso Henriques, the self-proclaimed King of Portugal, persuaded them to join his personal crusade to capture Lisbon from the Almoravid Muslims, offering treasures and ransoms as rewards.
The battle marked a pivotal moment in the country’s history.
Portugal was recognized as an independent Christian kingdom by papal decree. Lisbon replaced Coimbra as the capital, and Afonso 'O Conquistador' Henriques became the first King of Portugal, reigning for 42 years with the glory of this major conquest.
The monarchy lasted until 1910.

Antic map crossed by the "aorta" Av. Almirante Reis, Arroios. Siege of Lisbon by painter Roque Gameiro. Tile Museum in Madre de Deus Convent. Library of St. Lazarus (São Lázaro). Penha de França 1977. Graffiti states, "houses yes. Shacks no."
At the turn of the 20th century, in 1918, the parish of Penha de França was officially named.
At that time, this steep hill was still rural, with open fields of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, farms, monasteries, and summer manors serving as retreats for the nobility. The name pays tribute to the hermitage and convent founded in 1598 in honor of Our Lady of Penha de França, where the eponymous church still stands today.
Perched on one of Lisbon's seven hills at an altitude of 110 meters above sea level, Penha de França seems to hang in the clouds. Green, bright, secretive, and serene, it offers stunning views from its lookout point, Miradouro da Penha de França—located at the district’s highest point, Cabeça do Alperche. From there, the views stretch far beyond the Tagus River and across the steep slope of Calçada do Poço dos Mouros.

View on the two levels of Arroios and Penha de França. Antic map (1900) of Av. dos Anjos.


Penha de França: An Opportunity to Preserve a Neighborhood.
Its streets wind up and down between pastel-colored houses tightly packed together. In the midafternoon, dogs roam and greet one another, school kids call it a day, and women, dressed in printed blouses, carry full shopping bags up the steps of Rua Cidade de Manchester.
Meanwhile, a mix of young people chills in orange deck chairs with tangerine drinks, from Café Esplanada do Miradouro do Monte Agudo. The sunshine, gentle breeze, and drifting clouds make the moment perfect. With its altitude and a wide space of around 1.2 hectares, the viewpoint instills a sense of freedom with the allure of a sky station.
For Parisians who have seen more and more of their city surrender to tourism, Penha de França has a charm reminiscent of Montmartre before mass tourism overwhelmed its cobbled streets. Imagine a place that was once home to the surrealists of the 1920s, an urban village where queer icon Dalida could still wander to the mercado with her signature blonde Egyptian flair.


That’s what Penha de França feels like today—and let’s don’t spoil it.
Like Montmartre, Penha de França is home to famous ancestors, buried in the Alto de São João Cemetery. Nearby, at the Tile Museum in the 16th-century Convent do Madre Deus, the story of Portugal’s iconic Azulejos is told. Santa Apolónia Train Station, right by the Tagus River, is a direct ticket to Évora in Alentejo.
Somehow, Penha de França still acts as a soft boundary between city and countryside. And since it thankfully lacks a Sacré Coeur, it can stay a laid-back, uncrowded residential and community lifestyle, where people still read books and elderly men newspapers on terraces.

Bistro Tati, Penha de França.
Vegan snacks at Pentagon Café and a bistro style dinner at Tati.
Roam its streets for peculiar sceneries: A woman quietly smokes on a balcony; a few houses down, a man chats with his parrot; sliding in oblique, a young man crosses Rua Cidade de Manchester by its corner barbershop.

Braamcamp Freire Secondary School designed by cvdbarquitectos

Campo Martires da Patria.
Avenida Almirante Reis is Arroios’s aorta.
It draws a straight line through the whole parish along the Green Metro Line. Emblematic places are Largo do Intendente Pina Manique where Casa Independente, Vida Portuguesa, and vintage shop still stand fiercely. Another is the green Campo Martires da Patria.

A Vida Portuguesa, Largo do Intendente Pina Manique.
Arroios and Penha da França, with their popular cultural hubs of Intendente and Anjos, are a world together with a wide matrix of streets and staircases, housing shapes and food flavors. Both areas are distinct from their Central district counterparts, for their multi ethnicity.
Arroios is the largest parish in Central Lisbon with a population close to 40,000 living in an area of 2.128 km² and represented by 92 nationalities. Alemada Station is where the green line crosses the red line and where Arroios resumes.
Its gender breakdown is almost equal with slightly more women (50.8%) than men (49.2%), and the 20-49 is the dominant age group building the pulse of this dynamic and multifaceted neighborhood in the heart of Lisbon. Source.
Live on the top of the world Lisbon.
This is a great time to invest in these areas of Lisbon.
With a yield of 7.2% backed up by a recent study of the 3rd quarter of 2024 by the real estate platform, Idealista, these areas are where people stay medium and long-term. With a great sample of housing, a range of affordable prices, lifestyle diversity, and a rental market steadily on the rise with high demands particularly where people can still afford their rents. Invest and let, your gross return will be 7.2%. Three years ago, it stood at 5.7%. Source.


Café Esplanada do Miradouro do Monte Agudo
Inclusive multiculturalism Arroios was where the African community —mostly from Mozambique, had its quarters for decades. From the 1990s onward, an important immigration from South Asia settled in. Bangladeshi are the dominant population, next to Indians and Nepalese citizens. Coined ‘Banglatown,’ Rua do Benformoso in the Moorish Quarter is testament to the immigration shift. North of Arroios, the main mosque of the Portuguese Islamic community is located Rua da Mesquita, near Praça de Espanha.
The inclusive multiculturalism is tribute to many independent cultural centers and marketplaces around Arroios; support centers for LGBTQ+ and minority communities around Intendente and Anjos are the places for emergent voices in the arts, world music festivals, social activism, and the long tables for the savoring cuisines from all over the world.
Rua dos Anjos for Worldwide Cuisine Flavors.
Mercado 31 de Janeiro—Açucena Veloso, often considered the best fish market in Lisbon, owns the first half of its name to Portugal's first anti-monarchy revolution, and Açucena Veloso is in memory of “Lisbon's most famous fishmonger —fishmonger to the chefs.”
Popular legends of Portuguese culture, diversity of cultures, and affordable property prices have contributed to build one of the most vibrant areas of the capital city. Walk along Rua dos Anjos, and you find Portuguese Trinca as well as Japanese, Turkish, Italian, Lebanese, Nepalese, and Ethiopian cuisines. Argentinian Cebate, around the corner, is a shop for serious mate and meat lovers.
Then there is MEZZE, located in the Mercado de Arroios. The first Syrian restaurant ran by Syrian refugees was imagined by Alaa Alhariri, who says, “Bread is the beginning of everything, it exists in every culture. In the Middle East it means family, it means sharing.” She was 24 in 2014 when she came to Lisbon to study architecture, after having spent time studying in Egypt and Istanbul. Here is her story.


Arroios is plurality. Penha da França is altitude.
Arroios and Penha da França combined seem to be the realm of the legendary cat, Puss in Boots, so vast and hilly is their combined topography. The rise of luxury residences and five-star hotels might sadly contribute a major loss.
"A square in the city center that is like a living room because it’s protected from the avenues’ traffic." —Marta Silva, defined the golden years of Independente: between 2014 and 2017.
Take the cultural flagship Casa Independente that weaved inclusion through live music, and secured warmth in the neighborhoods’ nightlife since 2012. It is forced out end of 2025. Founder Marta Silva, a multidisciplinary talent (dancer, art director, producer and educator), tells her story and her neighborhood in an interview with Frederico Raposo (2023).
“New projects kept arriving, but there was compatibility, dialogue, and a close relationship with the old school of Intendente – the 12 or 13 traders from the old neighborhoods. It had been labelled ‘Fantastic area, more hipster,’ but the real estate madness hadn’t hit yet, and there was a great balance between new and old businesses. So, there wasn’t this crash, this antithesis, this annihilation to replace.”
Intendente is now in transit between local resistance and luxury concepts to replace its local fabric. “The whole block was sold over 20 million. With O das Joanas already gone, what will remain of the community’s roots and sense of belonging?" Read the whole interview.

Penha de França, street views.


A capital city constantly evolves as a collective work of art.
Lisbon (like most desirable capitals in the world) is trans, kaleidoscopic, multiethnic, multicultural, complex, and organic — constantly in motion. For that reason, its history cannot be told in a linear fashion, as we still do with national history. Through their heatwaves and cultural sensors, cities teach history in oblique.
Shaped by its ever-changing demographics, social activism, shifting circles of influence, and places of gathering, a city operates through its neighborhoods and their collective markers and rituals.
"Living rooms" are the squares, live music venues, literary cafes, cultural centers, and markets. They are the semaphores where people find and encounter one another.
The inherent aesthetics and cultural experiences staged in the urban sphere enrich, nurture, and educate a people about others through live art, architecture, history, food, and lifestyle. The endless discoveries of everyday peculiarities in an ever changing reality are the most thrilling urban treasure hunts, and they teach us tolerance and empathy. They enrich and affect everyone’s existence — even as passersby. But they also require us to better define each individual’s accountability in behaviors, consideration, and curiosity.
Never static, never fully belonging to anyone yet somehow to everyone, and always at risk of being derailed, spoiled, neglected, or closed-off, a city or a neighborhood can become an empty shell. Immigration — itself not a singular word or behavior — could be reconsidered through its movements, its campos, its intentions. As such, capital cities more than ever could exemplify multicultural movements from their own vantage points.
While the right to vote and change policies is reserved for a country’s citizens, anyone who stops for a while in a city, lives there for years, or even passes through, has a role to play.
Marta Silva said it so simply: “There are two ways to enter a territory: wanting to take individual benefit from it or being concerned with the collective benefit.”
That choice is left to each of us.

Marta Silva, founder of Casa Independente. Photo courtesy of Líbia Florentino. Read full interview by Federico Raposo for amensagem.pt

Casa Independente, IG extracts.
Arroios | Penha de França
Historical / Cultural Landmarks
Rua de Martim Vaz runs parallel to Calçada de Santana in the Moorish Quarter. This street is home to the maternal grandparents’ house of the greatest fado singer of all time, Amália Rodrigues. Born at 5 AM on July 23, 1920, a plaque between numbers 84 and 86 honors her soulful presence.
Birthplace of Amália Rodrigues (1920-1999), Rua de Martim Vaz
Ramiro, Avenida Almirante Reis—an iconic seafood spot with endless queues
A Vida Portuguesa, a showcase of Portugal’s essence through everyday objects, founded by Catarina Portas
Mercado 31 de Janeiro–Açucena Veloso, home to Lisbon’s best fish market
Library of São Lázaro, Lisbon’s first municipal library (since 1883)
Mercado de Arroios, offering local food and handmade clothing
Ramiro is a must-visit for seafood lovers, while Anjos70 is the place for vintage finds. Mercado 31 de Janeiro fills your basket from Tuesday to Saturday, and Slash Hair Studio experiments with bold colors. Need to burn off energy? Lemon Fit’s 24/7 gym with indoor tracks is perfect for rainy days.
Schools
Military Academy (Rua Gomes Freire), a public military higher education institution
Braamcamp Freire Secondary School (Pontinha), designed by cvdbarquitectos
Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon's top engineering school with over 11,000 students
Indie Warmth & Groove
Casa Independente, the heartbeat of nightlife (Zouk Bass, Psychedelic, Hip Hop…)
Bota, a collective living room with world music and recording studios
Groovy Records, a 20-year-old record store for garage and underground music
Indie Bookshop Bivar, selling second-hand English books
Anjos70, a cultural hub with film festivals, dance classes, and yoga
Mercado de Culturas, a 1000 m² space for exhibitions, live music, and fairs
House of Diversity, supporting LGBTQ+ and minority communities
Casa Cheia, for music, theater, and talks on Rua Lopes
Green Landmarks
Jardim do Torel, a romantic secret
Campo dos Mártires da Pátria, a popular spot for dog lovers
Jardim Braamcamp Freire, honoring the historian and archaeologist
World Cuisine
Zaataria, Lebanese cuisine
Grande Palácio Hong-Kong, known for the best dim sum in Lisbon
Las Cholas, serving Latin American dishes
Praça de Chile, a vegan haven
Viewpoints
Miradouro da Graça
Miradouro de Monte Agudo
Miradouro da Senhora do Monte
Highlights of Penha de França
Bistro Tati (Rua Carrilho Videira, 20B)With the bohemian charm of Buenos Aires and the bistro culture of 90s Bastille, Tati exudes handcrafted elegance. Menus are written on blackboards, independent wines line the shelves, and jazz posters adorn the walls. The service is warm and Italian, with a packed terrace at night forming a crescent moon atop R. Carrilho Videira.


Pentagon Café (R. Martins Sarmento 50). With an equal vibrancy in situ and on instagram.

KitMania—Miniature Car Collection (KitMania, Av. General Roçadas nº 34-H) Founder: Fernando Jorge Martins Domingues

Ever dreamt of a Little Corvette 'Stingray' 1963? (Left) Sandra at KitMania (right) Pastelaria Titó.
Best Bus Ride
Bus 735: The route winds through R. Bica Sapato, R. Vale Sto. António, R. Washington, R. Mato Grosso, R. Bartolomeu Costa, and R. Sapadores. Explore R. Afonso Domingues, R. Heliodoro Salgado, and Av. Gen. Roçadas for a perfect blend of local flavor.
Workshops
Ceramics at Estúdio Torto (Estúdio Torto, R. Melo Gouveia)
Experimental Photography at Tira-olhos Associação de Fotografia (Tira-olhos, Rua Jacinto Nunes, 8B)

Ceramics at Estúdio Torto (Estúdio Torto, R. Melo Gouveia)



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Fact Box: Immigration, Density, and Tourism Influx
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Densest Areas In 2018, Lisbon was ranked 13th among Europe's densest cities, London is 15th. On the top: Barcelona (#1) and Paris (#2). (Source: The Guardian)
Comparative Figures (2024 Estimates)
Lisbon, Paris, Barcelona:
Area
Lisbon: 100.05 km²
Paris: 105.4 km²
Barcelona: 101.9 km²
Population
Lisbon: 545,000
Paris: 2.1 million
Barcelona: 1.6 million
Population Density
Lisbon: 5,450 people/km²
Paris: 20,000 people/km²
Barcelona: 15,700 people/km²
Tourism Influx
Lisbon: 5-6 million visitors annually
Paris: 40 million visitors annually
Barcelona: 12 million visitors annually
Foreign Residents in Portugal
They are mainly concentrated in Lisbon, Setúbal, and Faro (63.5%)
Foreign Population Origins (2023) America: 38.9%
Europe: 26.5%
Asia: 16.1%
Africa: 18.4%
Oceania: 0.1%
Largest Foreign Community
Brazilians, contributing significantly to Portugal's workforce.
They are mostly in sectors like IT, law, health, hospitality, and tourism.
Portuguese Abroad (2021)
Close to 600,000 Portuguese live or/and were born abroad. In 2021, 186 183 lived in Europe, dominantly in France (87 073), and 128 943 in the US alone. Well-educated young Portuguese often prefer to go to other countries in search of better salaries.
(Sources: Wikipedia, Publico)
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