The Shops of Chiado and Baixa

Today’s article by sociologist and profound connoisseur of the city of Lisbon, Guilherme Pereira, focuses on the shops of Chiado and Baixa. Here, we will not find a list of historical shops, as such a list would always be outdated given the number of establishments that close their doors—a natural end inherent to all things and also a consequence of the great real estate pressure stemming from uncontrollable mass tourism. Lisbon is definitely in vogue, and that comes with a price. Nevertheless, they persist as a living heritage, with locations that have remote origins, sometimes for unexpected reasons.
Immerse yourself in this invitation from the author and guide of the walking tours “Chiado das Lojas Elegantes e da Moda” and “Baixa, Ofícios e Tradição I e II” (available in Portuguese only) and dare to accompany him through Chiado and Baixa, discovering their stories and knowledge through the magnificent traditional shops that strive to survive.

The Shops of Chiado and Baixa – A Living, Useful Heritage in Our Daily Lives

Today’s Chiado and Baixa complement each other in the trades and services they offer: more common and practical in Baixa and special items that can only be found there, while Chiado is more elite and fashionable, with arts, the São Carlos, São Luiz, and Trindade theatres, various associations such as the Literary Guild, museums, libraries, and bookstores.

In Baixa, it was the middle, liberal, mercantile, and laborious classes, now replaced by hordes of tourists; in Chiado, the elites, the avant-garde, creatives, and various artists. From the 19th century and still today. If globalization and mass tourism are changing all this, there are still traces and marks. A living, useful heritage in our daily lives, shared by outsiders.

From a heritage point of view, it is the shop or commercial establishment, a physical space, built, furnished, equipped, decorated, but not only that. From an economic and labour point of view, it is the firm, the brand that guarantees experience and reputation, the activity or trade practiced there and that serves us when we need it.

Jewelry stores, pharmacies, bookstores, cafés, ginjinha shops, haberdasheries, fashion and fabric houses are certainly among the most decorated and eye-catching, but not only those. A living, useful heritage in our daily lives that is part of our memory and our life.

Appreciate the façades, shop windows, signs, furniture, and decorations. But also talk about what is sold or made there, the trades, and the fashions. Tell some stories, traditions, uses, and customs. And we will only see and talk about the shops of Chiado and Baixa that still exist.

But we will also talk about what is not visible but is known. The pharmacies that succeeded medieval apothecaries and that, with knowledge acquired in the 19th-century universities, were places of social gatherings for their technical directors—the pharmacists—respected and influential people in the local community, and who, depending on their political tendencies, sometimes gathered republicans, sometimes monarchists, from various parties…

But there were also gatherings in bookstores—Aquilino Ribeiro had one in Bertrand—or in cafés—A Brasileira, famous for the circles of artists and intellectuals it gathered. From the forbidden Casino Conferences—to Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Square, in front of which stands the Eça de Queirós Circle, and further on, the Literary Guild, not to mention others more discreet and without a sign at the door, living heritage but reserved for elites.

Shoe stores have always been plentiful here, but they have always been more for women—and some only for women—but it is common knowledge and among professionals in the sector that there have never been shoe stores only for men: men buy shoes only when they wear out, but women, for reasons of fashion and season, usually buy at least two pairs a year… Fashions, uses, and customs that constitute part of the “living and intangible heritage.”

The shoe stores were elegant and beautiful shops, some with refined façades and decoration, that rivaled jewelry stores and pastry shops, in order to attract customers for the acquisition of that artifact of feminine elegance that is the shoe.

Today many shoe stores have been replaced by “warehouses” where, in self-service, models are displayed on top of stacked shoe boxes, a model that is then stored in various sizes in the boxes below… What was lost in distinction was replaced by quick, useful, and cheap! Fashions that say a lot about the uses and customs of the respective eras.

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In Baixa, everyone knows the streets named after professions and trades that operated there: Sapateiros (shoemakers), Fanqueiros (clothiers), Bacalhoeiros (codfish sellers), Douradores (gilders), Prata (Silver Street) or silversmiths, Ouro (Gold Street) or jewelers.

But a more curious and subtle connection is the hill of Santa Catarina and by extension the hill of São Roque or Bairro Alto, to newspapers, printing houses, and typographies that existed there until the 20th century: since the 14th/15th century, the guild of booksellers and publishers, with Saint Catherine of Alexandria or Mount Sinai as its patroness, was associated with this area of the city—the former parish of Santa Catarina.

By tradition, antiquarian booksellers and, by association, antiques, art galleries, and engravings, still remain there, also attracting certain tourists. Thus, Chiado or São Francisco hill still have many bookstores and have two museums—the Contemporary Art Museum and the São Roque Church Museum: everything has been connected for a long time, intertwined, related, enduring, and renewing, remaining a living, useful, daily heritage but also curious and beautiful that only reveals itself to us when we see it with “different eyes.”

The shops of Chiado and Baixa need and deserve your visit!