Lisboa in the turn of the century

The 20th century, that is.

Lisboa City Hall is promoting an activity amongst the Portuguese Urban Sketchers community that focuses on a list of 19th to 20th century threatened buildings. The aim is to attract attention to these buildings, alerting the civil society about the dangers of letting these gems perish.

My contribution to the common effort is a portrait of a former industrial building known as “A Napolitana“, a pasta factory, built in 1908, in the industrial area of Santo Amaro. It’s one of the first examples of food production mechanizing and one of the last remaining specimens of its kind. Santo Amaro became a fully integrated part of the city and is no longer industrialized, but many buildings in the area still preserve industrial archetypes. It is built in yellowish brick, an uncommon material in Lisboa, and its façades are decorated with small tile panels.

Most of the residential buildings around the area are former workers’ houses. Lately, the area has been subject to a mild gentrification, mostly due to LXFactory, another former factory that has been converted into a design district and offices.