Mouraria

When Afonso Henriques took Lisbon in 1147 the Muslim population that remained was moved outside the walls into this slope below the castle, and the name stuck. It stayed a poor quarter, and in the nineteenth century it produced fado: Maria Severa, the singer whose affair with a count and early death in 1846 made her the founding legend of the form, lived and died here, and her house is marked. The area was cut about by twentieth-century clearances and had a bad reputation for decades. It is now the most demographically mixed part of Lisbon - Bangladeshi, Chinese, Indian, Nepalese, Mozambican and Guinean shops and restaurants along the streets off Martim Moniz - alongside the older Portuguese residents, and it has been the subject of a long regeneration programme with murals, a fado museum trail and rising rents. The Escadinhas de São Cristóvão have a large tiled fado mural.

What to look for

• The 1147 origin - the slope Lisbon's Muslim population was moved to.
• The fado roots - Maria Severa's house and the streets where the form emerged.
• The mixed streets - South Asian and African shops and kitchens off Martim Moniz.
• The murals - tiled and painted fado works on the stairways.

When to go

Year-round. Two to four hours walking. June brings the Santo António festival, when the quarter is at its liveliest and most crowded.

Good to know

Steep stepped streets throughout. Parts remain poor and some blocks are run down. Normal city caution after dark, particularly around Martim Moniz. Gentrification is displacing long-term residents, which is the live local argument.

Nearby

The castle is above; Martim Moniz and the Baixa are below.

Key facts