History
Fertile land and plentiful water in the old Carnide-Luz area helped settle the population from at least the twelfth century. Historical records retain the trace of rural properties held by families, religious institutions and the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora. Carnide parish was created in the late thirteenth century, and Igreja de São Lourenço was built in 1342.
Devotion to Nossa Senhora da Luz grew during the fifteenth century. Religious tradition holds that a devotee, Pero Martins, found an image of the Virgin after being guided by a light; pilgrimages to the Luz area are documented from that period. Infanta D. Maria commissioned a new church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, built between 1575 and 1596. Its chancel and her tomb are now classified as a National Monument.
The pilgrimage gave rise to Feira da Luz, recorded from at least the sixteenth century. Religious objects were later joined by pottery, fruit, baskets and other goods; a cattle fair was also held in the nineteenth century. In 1929, the tram line between Restauradores and Carnide made the fair easier to reach and helped it grow.
Estates, convents, palaces and welfare buildings shaped the area in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though the 1755 earthquake damaged several structures. The former Largo da Luz, once crossed by a ditch and used for threshing, began its transformation into a garden in 1862. In the twentieth century, Bairro Padre Cruz brought significant population growth, followed by the expansion of Quinta da Luz, Bairro Novo de Carnide and Horta Nova. Today, heritage and municipal neighbourhoods sit alongside newer residential areas.