Shops and the City: retail stores and Lisbon during the Belle Époque

Between the end of the 19th century and the First World War, Lisbon underwent rapid changes in  demographic, urban, social, and political terms. The city grew; it became modern and was beautified, it opened its avenues to trams, cars, lampposts, and to the big department stores.

At the same time, Lisbon remained a city of taverns and grocery stores, a small world of streets full of traditional commerce where carts, newspaper vendors, fishwives, and workers went about their business, and where police chased the "riffraff" who threw stones at religious processions and took part in strikes and demonstrations. 

From this viewpoint, we will uncover the everyday life and social fabric of the capital between 1890 and 1914.

Professor Daniel Alves