The neighborhoods where our apartments live

The various proposals of Casa Branca Apartments are located in some of the most emblematic neighborhoods in Lisbon. In these places, our guests can experience life in Lisbon, just as its residents feel it every day. Discover the testimonies of those who live here and see the suggestions of our favorite places to eat, drink, be, experience.

Mouraria is ”it”!

I have lived in Mouraria for 43 years. My grandfather and my father were born in Mouraria. The house where I live has therefore been inhabited for 3 generations. I have known Mouraria since the 70s. Its narrow streets fill with people in June during the patron saints’ festivities. But the biggest night is June 12, when the people of Lisbon and the neighborhood go out into the street to eat traditional snacks, dance the night away and celebrate Santo António.
During the rest of the year Mouraria has 900 years of history to see, five churches, a museum, spaces to discover and its authentic people. It is in the fishmonger, in cafes, or in the tavern of Amigos da Severa that the people of the neighborhood are felt the most. Multiculturalism is in the air on every corner. Chinese, Asians from Nepal, India or Bangladesh circulate everywhere. From the multicolored four-story houses with clothes drying at the window, a fado that surrounds us or an aroma of curry emerges. Each alley is more romantic than the next. The squares are places for meeting and socializing. Life reigns everywhere, and it is not uncommon, in midsummer, to see a stove roasting sardines in the middle of the street and to be invited to have a drink. It’s a neighborhood of neighbors. Where people say good morning and there is a feeling of community. Everyone knows each other.
Located in the city center, Mouraria has everything to make a person happy. That’s why I don’t want to live elsewhere. Mouraria is “it”.

Nuno Franco, resident of Mouraria

An absolutely magical place!

I lived for twenty years in Lapa, to my great regret not anymore. But I still have my business on Rua São João da Mata and, therefore, it’s as if I continue to live here. In fact, we spend so many hours at the “Batata Doce”, six days a week from morning until dawn, that my husband and I used to say that the restaurant is the living room of our house. And, in fact, it is very much like that! Because it is in this space that we receive not only clients but also friends, and it is in the neighborhood that we maintain our community relationships. We know the inhabitants and merchants, and together we are a big family.
In recent years, the rehabilitation of the buildings has brought another type of residents to the Bairro, younger people and many foreigners, and everyone has adapted very well and, in conversation, they tell me they are very happy here. Some leave and others arrive, but Lapa remains one of the most beautiful places in Lisbon. For me, it was and continues to be an absolutely magical place, with fabulous views, and very close to outstanding places: we’re down and we’re on the river, for a walk or bike ride along its banks, the Teatro da Barraca, the National Museum of Ancient Art. Every Saturday we have a small market in the churchyard of the Church of Santos-o-Velho, where various products from bread to vegetables are sold, with bio options, and which also serves as a conversation with visitors. At the time of Santos Populares, the neighborhood gains even more life as we are half-walled with the Madragoa neighborhood. So there is a mixture of antiquity and modernity here that works very well.

Isabel Jacinto, owner of the “Batata Doce” restaurant

World’s coolest

Arroios is the “coolest neighborhood in the world” in Time Out’s top international chart.
Based on a survey of thousands of people, editors in all countries where the magazine is published chose the “50 coolest neighborhoods in the world”. And the number 1 is from Lisbon. Arroios, “more than a neighborhood, it is a world in itself”.

“In the multicultural neighborhood of Arroios, in Lisbon, the new coexists with the classic and diversity is everywhere”. This is how the highlight of the Alfacinha neighborhood begins, which leads the world’s top 50 of the areas that most appeal to the editors of Time Out magazines, published this Tuesday on the brand’s international website.

See the full article from “Público” newspaper »