Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal

Chiado is one of the most emblematic and traditional districts of Lisbon. It is located between Bairro Alto and Baixa Pombalina.

In 1856, with the creation of the literary circle, a club of the intellectuals of the time, Chiado became the center of Portuguese Romanticism, a necessary point of passage for those who wanted to be known in the city. The writer Eça de Queiroz in his work "The Mayas" made great reference to the Chiado and the Literary Grémio.

Chiado was divided by the parishes of the Sacrament and the Martyrs, two of the smaller ones of Lisbon, being now fully integrated in the new parish of Santa Maria Maior.

In the 1980s, due to the change in the habits of Lisboetas and the opening of the Amoreiras shopping center, Chiado became decadent.

In 1988, at dawn of August 25, between 3 and 4 in the morning, a fire broke out in the Grandella building, which was to take on great proportions spreading to seventeen buildings. The Chiado was destroyed and its reconstruction took all the decade of 1990, being the design in charge of the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira.

Today Chiado has once again become an important trading center in Lisbon, being one of the most cosmopolitan and bustling areas of the Portuguese capital, hosting the emblematic events such as Vogue Fashion's Night Out.

The origin of its name comes from a person at the sixteenth-century a innkeeper, owner of an establishment located in front of the Convento do Espirito Santo, then Palácio Barcelinhos and now Armazéns do Chiado.