Old Lisbon Shops

The heavy wooden door at the Casa das Velas Loreto opens into a room filled with the scent of beeswax and paraffin. This shop produces hand-dipped candles using techniques that have remained steady for generations. The owner, Maria do Céu,…

The Livraria Bertrand on Rua Garrett carries a cast-iron sign claiming it is the oldest operating bookstore in the world. Pedro Faure opened the shop in seventeen thirty-two, but the great Lisbon earthquake of seventeen fifty-five leveled…

The small storefront of Luvaria Ulisses features a dark wooden facade and a single display window packed with leather gloves. Established in nineteen twenty-five, this tiny shop has survived for nearly a century by specializing in…

The storefront of Chapelaria Azevedo Rua displays a dense, orderly grid of wooden hat boxes stacked all the way to the ceiling. Established in nineteen zero six, this shop retains the exact glass-fronted mahogany cabinetry and ornate,…

A Ginjinha is a tiny, standing-room-only bar identified by the peeling red paint on its doorway and the constant cluster of people sipping from small plastic cups on the sidewalk. Francisco Espinheira founded this spot in eighteen forty.…

Manteigaria Silva features a storefront clad in dark, polished wood and ornate gold lettering that dates back to its opening in nineteen oh four. This grocery shop once functioned as a purveyor of fine goods to the Portuguese aristocracy,…

The Confeitaria Nacional features a distinctive carved wooden facade and a traditional interior that has remained largely unchanged since eighteen twenty-nine. Balthazar Roiz Castanheiro founded this shop to sell pastries on this exact…

The Conserveira de Lisboa features a window display stacked high with colorful, paper-wrapped tins of sardines, mackerel, and octopus. Since nineteen thirty, this shop has sold preserved fish from the same counter on Rua dos Bacalhoeiros.…