Chiado is the name of a square and its surrounding area in the city of Lisbon. The Chiado is located between the neighbourhoods of Bairro Alto and Baixa Pombalina. It is a traditional shopping area that mixes old and modern commercial establishments, mostly located at the Carmo and Garrett streets. The most well-known café of Chiado is “A Brasileira“, famous for having had poet Fernando Pessoa among its customers, and today it is very popular among tourists. The Chiado is also an important cultural area, with several museums and theatres.
The toponym Chiado has existed since around 1567. Initially the name referred to Garrett Street, and later to the whole surrounding area. The most widely cited possible origin for the name is related to António Ribeiro (c.1520–1591), a popular poet from Évora who lived in the area and whose nickname was “chiado” (“squeak”). A bronze statue of the poet, by sculptor Costa Mota (tio), was placed in the Chiado Square in 1925.
In the 18th and, especially, in the 19th century, a great number of important commercial establishments opened in the Chiado, turning it into a favourite shopping area. Some of them exist to this day, like the “Bertrand Bookshop” (opened 1747) and “Paris em Lisboa” (garment shop opened 1888). In 1792, Lisbon’s opera house, the Teatro Nacional São Carlos, was inaugurated, attracting the cultural elite of the city, and other theatres were opened in the 19th century (Trindade Theatre, S. Luís Theatre). Museums were also created, like the Archaeological Museum in the former Carmo Church and the Museum of Contemporary Art in the former St Francis Convent (now Chiado Museum). The cafés and theatres in the area were a meeting point for the aristocracy, artists, and intellectuals at least until the 1960s. It eventually became a beloved touristic site thanks to its picturesque streets and squares, cultural attractions, cafés and shops.
On the early hours of August 25, 1988, a fire started at the Grandella store in Rua do Carmo (Carmo Street) and quickly spread to Rua Garrett (Garrett Street) and others, affecting a total of 18 buildings (corresponding to an 8000 m² land footprint) in the area Chiado, of which 11 were full losses with structure collapse, including the Armazéns do Chiado and Grandella department stores, that never reopened, along with several other historical shops also destroyed. In 1989 the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira was invited by the mayor of Lisbon Krus Abecassis to oversee the reconstruction project for the area. This rebuilding project was mostly completed by 1999, and included a shopping centre on the former Armazéns do Chiado building and the new Baixa-Chiado station of the Lisbon Metro, as well as new public spaces. The exterior look of the buildings was restored, while the interiors have been completely rebuilt according to modern construction techniques and safety regulations. As of 2013, Siza’s project is still not fully built, with the Terraços do Carmo, a structure comprising a series of balconies and belvederes, still under construction.
