History
Castelo hill holds some of the city’s oldest surviving layers. On its slope, the Roman Theatre, built in the 1st century, used the natural gradient; part of its ruins was later buried beneath newer buildings, in a very Lisbon example of a city building over itself. Higher up, the Núcleo Arqueológico do Castelo de São Jorge preserves mid-11th-century Islamic domestic structures.
Following the Christian conquest of 1147, construction began on Sé de Lisboa, linked to the historic name Igreja de Santa Maria Maior. Its site probably corresponds to that of a former mosque, although this is not an archaeological certainty. Medieval neighbourhoods developed around it, including Alfama, Castelo, Mouraria and São Cristóvão, where narrow streets, stairways and street patterns predating the Pombaline reconstruction remain. Igreja de São Cristóvão originated in a church associated with Lisbon’s Mozarabic community during the Islamic period and was largely rebuilt in the first half of the 18th century.
By the 17th century, these streets already had their congestion: coaches, sedan chairs, seges and carts competed for passages too narrow for two vehicles. A decree of 9 October 1686 set out priorities, generally requiring uphill traffic to reverse and let downhill traffic pass. The 1755 earthquake, followed by fires and the waters of the Tejo entering the city, transformed the centre profoundly. Under Manuel da Maia’s direction, Baixa was rebuilt with broad streets, regular blocks and a new framework between Praça do Comércio and Rossio; on the slopes, older street patterns proved more stubborn.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Ruínas do Carmo became an open-air reminder of the earthquake, while Elevador de Santa Justa, inaugurated in 1902, addressed the rise between Baixa and Carmo in iron. The present-day civil parish of Santa Maria Maior was created in Lisbon’s 2012 administrative reorganisation, bringing together twelve former parishes and neighbourhoods that retain distinct identities.