LISBON TO DISCOVER · 06 / 24

Avenidas Novas

Avenidas Novas civil parish presents a Lisbon that can seem to have been made with a long ruler and a fair amount of urban ambition. Along the Avenida da República axis, its roundabouts, regular blocks and tree-lined avenues, the city’s planned northern growth is easy to read. Yet the geometry did not erase the territory’s different layers: Bairro Azul, Bairro do Rego, Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Fátima and the modern Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation complex all belong here. For runners who pay attention to their surroundings, this is a parish where the logic of urban design reveals itself almost stride by stride.

History

Before urban expansion, much of what is now the civil parish consisted of estates, agricultural land and rural paths, alongside existing settlements and local activity. After the 1755 earthquake, people seeking areas further from Lisbon’s centre contributed to the growth of this territory.

The name Avenidas Novas became associated with Lisbon’s northward expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Engineer Frederico Ressano Garcia played a central role in this process. He studied engineering in Paris during the major urban reforms associated with Georges-Eugène Haussmann, drawing on planning ideas rather than importing a ready-made copy. The 1888 scheme, “Avenida das Picoas ao Campo Grande e ruas adjacentes”, extended the urban axis of Avenida da Liberdade and Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo towards Campo Grande, along what would become Avenida da República.

The City Council acquired land, opened streets, divided plots and guided development. Broad avenues, parallel and cross streets, regular blocks, roundabouts, planting and modern water and sewer networks formed a new urban structure. The first plots began to be built in the early twentieth century, and electric trams were serving the area regularly from 1905.

The present civil parish was created in Lisbon’s 2012 administrative reorganisation, bringing together São Sebastião da Pedreira, Nossa Senhora de Fátima and part of Campolide. It does not, however, exactly match the full historic area of the Avenidas Novas plan.

Did you know?

RESSANO GARCIA LOST ONE AVENUE AND GOT ANOTHER

Today’s Avenida da República had a brief career under different names. It began as Avenida das Picoas, referring to Quinta das Picoas. In 1897, it became Avenida Ressano Garcia, honouring the engineer associated with the expansion plan that helped shape this axis. After the establishment of the Republic, it was given its present name by an edict of 5 November 1910.

That was not the end of the story. In 1929, Lisbon put Ressano Garcia back on the map by giving his name to an avenue in Bairro Azul. It is not the former Avenida Ressano Garcia, but another, smaller avenue carrying the same name.

For runners, the switch makes for an intriguing read of the parish. You can move along the broad avenue whose development Ressano Garcia helped frame, though it no longer bears his name, then find the avenue where it returned. A small relay race in street naming, with no baton required.

Reference points

01Avenida da República — the northward-expansion axis, first known as Avenida das Picoas.
02Praça Duque de Saldanha — a roundabout linking the area’s major urban axes.
03Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo — the connection between Avenida da Liberdade and the Avenidas Novas system.
04Avenida Ressano Garcia — the Bairro Azul avenue that restored the engineer’s name in 1929.
05Bairro Azul — a modern residential area popularly named after the original colour of its shutters and railings.
06Bairro do Rego — an area shaped by the railway and the joining of several historic settlements.
07Rua da Beneficência — part of the former Estrada do Rego, or Estrada da Palma de Cima.
08Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Fátima — a modernist design by Porfírio Pardal Monteiro, inaugurated in 1938.
09Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Garden — a complex inaugurated in 1969 and classified as a National Monument in 2010.

Suggestions for exploring

Move along Avenida da República and notice the repeated blocks, alignments and breadth of the avenue.
Compare the major avenues with streets that predate the expansion: the difference in scale helps reveal the plan.
Look for contrasts between eclectic, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and modernist buildings, without expecting every building to follow the same style.
In Bairro Azul, look at shutters and railings: their original colour helped establish the area’s popular name.
After Avenida da República, pass through Avenida Ressano Garcia and trace the name swap on the map itself.
In Bairro do Rego, notice how the railway encouraged local growth while also creating a physical divide.
In the Gulbenkian Garden, observe the relationship between architecture, water, planting and paths before returning to the city’s rhythm.

Editorial sources

Content reviewed against the sources listed below.

Earned. Not Given.

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