São Bento is a residential neighborhood made up of only a handful of streets, but it’s home to one of the country’s most important buildings. That’s São Bento Palace, or the Portuguese parliament that you’ll see as you speed by in the unofficial tourist tram 28. You likely won’t step down to see it any closer, and won’t explore the neighborhood either. But those who love shopping, especially for antiques, will find plenty of reasons to do so down Rua de São Bento.

Lined with a number of antique shops, that street also hosts a street party every year in September called “São Bento Nights,” with street performances and concerts. The shops stay open until midnight during those three days, and in this eighth year there is a theme in all of the festivities – “Lisbon and the Tagus.” So if you’re Lisbon on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of this month, head to this street at night and you’ll hear the sounds of water, string instruments, and ballads. In the end, you may even end up buying an interesting old something at an antique shop to take back home as a reminder of your Lisbon visit.

Related Posts

1. The Night Bus

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2008 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Events, Shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.