GRAND OPENINGS
Vincci Baixa Hotel
The opening of this hotel brought a breath of fresh air to the grid of streets of Lisbon’s downtown. The city’s most interesting hotels are found in the old historical quarters of the city, but those streets of Baixa so close to the river house mostly charmless budget hotels. Vincci Baixa brought modern design and a better 4-star service to the neighborhood, and the good news is that others are scheduled to follow it in the next couple of years.

VIP Grand Lisboa
Finally a good 5-star hotel within walking distance to the Gulbenkian Museum! Lisbon’s culture vulture tourists never miss the Gulbenkian, and in fact I have known a few who’ve visited the Portuguese capital just with that museum in mind. Those wishing to stay at a hotel close to it always had many good options, but they were the standard business hotels with good but not exceptional service to make your Lisbon stay more memorable. VIP Grand also caters to business travelers (it’s located in the heart of uptown’s financial district), but adds 5-star services also sought by leisure travelers such as a spa and a good restaurant.

Silk
Lisbon’s most exclusive hotspot opened early in the year and in less than 12 months is already the talk of the town, especially among those curious to check what it’s all about but can’t get on the restrictive guestlist. If you’re staying at an upmarket hotel, you may very well be one of the lucky few. You’ll find an elegant space, a sophisticated ambience, high-priced drinks, and views of every corner of Lisbon.

Kaffeehaus
Lisbon has been conquered by Vienna. Sure there are only two Austrian cafes in the city, but they have become two of the favorites. Pois Café in Alfama was a mandatory stop in the neighborhood when a second Vienna-inspired café opened in the city, but in the Chiado district. It now competes with the hip Deli Delux as Lisbon’s favorite Sunday brunch destination.

Orient Museum
Lisbon finally offers a major attraction that it was lacking. As the European capital that most contributed to the cultural ties between the Far East and the West, Lisbon had to have a space dedicated to showing the best of the Orient, and that happened in 2008. With the opening of the Orient Museum, visitors can now learn about traditional art from all over Asia, and see how Portugal influenced and was influenced by that part of the world.

Blindness in theatres
This was not only an opening in Lisbon. It was an opening around the world, but it had more relevance in Lisbon. Critics didn’t seem to like the Hollywood version of Portugal’s Nobel Prize author Jose Saramago’s novel “Blindness,” but as the first novel that the author allowed to make it to the big screen, it was an event Lisbon looked forward to see. Some were pleased, others were disappointed, but everyone enjoyed seeing Saramago’s work come to life. And this year it was also announced that the writer will have his own foundation housed in the city’s landmark Casa dos Bicos soon.

GRAND RE-OPENINGS
Fado Museum
The museum dedicated to showcasing Lisbon’s special music went through major renovation works and reopened later in the year. It got rid of attractions it felt it didn’t need, and added new features such as new sample audio tracks. Also of note is its new restaurant, given a surprisingly minimalist and completely contemporary look, further showing that Fado is very much a traditional sound of the past, but also with a very strong present.

Cravo e Canela
It’s one of the best restaurants in Bairro Alto, but remains underrated perhaps because it was closed for a few months. It’s now reopen and remains an excellent choice for those looking for a different gastronomic experience made up of contemporary international dishes with a small dose of exotic flavors. It’s served in a low-lit and very comfortable space, which you’ll only want to leave after a few hours, and to move on to the bar by the entrance.

Kubo
This got our vote as the best place for late-afternoon/after-work drinks. It’s been a summer hotspot for the last couple of years, and we welcomed it again in 2008. And this year it was even better because it was also transformed into an autumn destination, and although it’s closing on the last day of the year, we look forward to it next summer again.

Rossio Station
Major works were needed to renovate the tunnel that connects Lisbon’s central Rossio Station to the suburbs that lead to Sintra, the country’s most beautiful town. So the station closed in 2004 and only opened this year with a cleaned-up façade and with a new terrace on its left side featuring cafes offering outdoor seating.

Miradouro São Pedro de Alcantara
Only when it was closed for so many months did the people of Lisbon realize how much they love this garden-terrace outside Bairro Alto offering a panoramic view of the city. It was so spotlessly clean when it opened, that some have said it lost a little of its charm, but there’s no denying that it’s much more welcoming, and the new kiosk-café only invites you to go and stay longer even more.

ATTRACTION OF THE YEAR
Berardo Museum
This museum could also have very well been the attraction of 2007 as it was the year when it was opened and so talked about, but in 2008 it remained the city’s there’s-no-excuse-to-miss attraction, as it prolonged its free entrance for one more year. Throughout the year it also hosted a couple of major temporary exhibitions, and renovated the permanent one. So it was free, there was always something new, and you got to see Warhol, Picasso, Dali, Magritte, and Bacon under the same roof. No other attraction in the city could beat that, and 550,000 visitors took advantage of that this year.

MILESTONES
2008 was a special year for:
Lux: Lisbon’s most famous club turned 10

Downtown Lisbon: Baixa’s Renaissance is 250 years old, and there’s much debate over where it goes from here.

Botanical Garden: It’s charmingly decadent and it was remembered when it turned 130.

Manoel de Oliveira: The world’s oldest film director turned 100 years young.

Incognito: It celebrated two decades this year, but in true Incognito fashion, it did it without much fanfare and to the sound of the 80s.

THE WORST
Party Poopers
Some people are trying to silence Bairro Alto. That neighborhood of multiple personalities; the quiet old lady in the morning, but a partying 20-something at night, likes to stay awake until very late/early. As a result, the people who can’t deal with the noise she makes at night as everyone joins her for drinks outside, have succeeded in making city hall close the bars’ doors earlier, at 2AM. In Lisbon time, that’s when you’re still leaving your house or a restaurant after dinner. Old habits just don’t die like that, and the battle between the below-40 generation and city hall is still not over.

Where’s the Design Museum?
First it was supposed to reopen in 2007 in a mansion to be renovated by the Santa Catarina Viewpoint. Then it was postponed for the end of 2008, and then for early 2009. Another change in plans moved the location to a building downtown, to be reconverted in time for a reopening in late 2010. Lisbon’s Design and Fashion Museum still seems to have an uncertain future, and in the meantime, the city and its visitors are without one of its major cultural attractions.

So this is Christmas?
Could Lisbon’s 2008 Christmas decorations have been in any poorer taste? The ones around Chiado do their job of bringing the season’s spirit to its shoppers, but what was everyone, anyone, someone thinking when they approved the advertisements masked as decorations in Rossio and Comercio Square? The central monument of Rossio was given a kitsch décor by a national charity house (which also oversees the national lottery), while the central space of Comercio Square was taken over by gigantic “lightbulbs” serving as advertisement for a national cell phone company. Sure it’s time for cutbacks in this financial crisis, but it’s better to not have any decorations than to see your emblematic public spaces invaded by shameless advertisements.

Rua das Portas de Santo Antão is a pedestrian street usually filled with tourists. It’s home to two famous restaurants listed in almost every guidebook (Gambrinus for seafood; Bonjardim for spicy chicken), and it’s parallel to Restauradores Square which everyone passes by at least once during their Lisbon visit. There are so many distractions on that street (particularly waiters standing outside their restaurants approaching you to convince you to sit and have a meal), that you completely overlook the building at number 58. That’s quite understandable, though. There’s no way of knowing what’s behind that door unless someone tells you about it in advance.

Once you enter and go up the steps you’ll find a peculiar Moorish courtyard as if transplanted from Morocco or Spain’s Andalusia.  Go up another flight of steps and you arrive in a hallway completely covered in tiles and antique furnishings. It originally was the 17th century residence of an aristocratic family, and in the early 20th century was turned into a casino. In 1932 it became a club for those from the province of Alentejo to meet, as it continues to be today.  A restaurant has been added and is open to everyone.

Casa do Alentejo Restaurant occupies two beautiful rooms decorated with tile panels and serves regional specialties. The atmosphere is quite informal but also romantic due to the setting, and is a good choice for families. You can also rent a big hall for private events, which includes a stage and beautiful Louis XVI-style mirrors and ornaments.

Back by the Moorish courtyard is a shop selling Alentejo specialties, including its famous wines and olive oil.

If you’ll be in Lisbon until the end of this month, take the opportunity to see the city from the river.
Operating from April 1st to October 31st, a sightseeing cruise lets you admire Lisbon’s skyline and riverfront monuments from the Tagus just as the city’s famous explorers saw them in the 15th century. Sure most of the views have changed since that time, but many of the towers and rooftops you’ll look at are those that Vasco da Gama and others saw as they departed for their voyages.

Cruise past Belem Tower (itself rising from the river), under Lisbon’s Golden Gate Bridge twin, through the central waterfront with the triumphal arch in Comercio Square, all the way to Parque das Nações, where the city’s modern architecture brings you back to the 21st century.

The boat departs from a terminal by Comercio Square at 3PM, and the entire trip takes about three hours. A multilingual guide explains the sights which you may then explore closer when you’re back on land.
For additional information or to book your tour, click here.

Lisbon’s streets and monuments are floodlit every night in a golden yellow tone, but next month it will be bathed in a number of other colors. It’s part of the Luzboa festival, an event that takes place every two years, when light and public art turn Lisbon into an open gallery of urban light design and contemporary art.

This year a giant harp with laser beams as strings will be placed in Comercio Square from November 8th to January 11th, and will certainly provide some extra magic during the holiday season. Sounds and rhythms will be created using hands or objects, mixing visual art with sound.

Other displays will be seen in the neighborhoods of Alfama, Baixa, and Bica, for a total of 40 different examples of festive lights by artists from Portugal and other European countries.

This street project invites people to go out at night and look at their city literally under a different light, and admire works of art that may only be properly appreciated outside and at night. Other works that don’t necessarily need that setting will be exhibited in the Berardo Museum.

The environmentally friendly LED lights will be turned on at dusk and switched off at midnight, with some extra hours on weekends and national holidays.

It took some time after the Great Earthquake of 1755 for Lisbon to have a reconstruction plan for its downtown area. After all, the city was left almost completely destroyed and its renaissance had to be carefully thought out. The final plan was completed in 1758, and it took decades to come to life.

For this year’s 250th anniversary of the project, the Lisbon City Hall has presented an exhibition explaining the evolution of downtown Lisbon as seen today, through official documents, photographs, and videos. The highlight is the huge model of the city as it was before the earthquake that was temporarily moved here from its permanent home in the City Museum.

The exhibition takes place in a gallery underneath the arches of Comercio Square, and can be seen until November 1st, the anniversary of the devastating earthquake. In addition to explaining what was Europe’s first neoclassical town planning using a grid of streets lined with uniform buildings, the exhibition also opens the debate of what should be done in the future in this historical district and presents the projects already in the works.

The city center is in urgent need of rejuvenation, with many of the buildings being given a new life. New residents that are seen as catalysts for a renewed Baixa district is the upcoming Design and Fashion Museum, as well as the conversion of many buildings into hotels. The hope is that with a lively, cleaned up Baixa, the area will be recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its singular architectural plan. After you see the “Lisboa 1758, The Baixa Plan Today” exhibition you’ll agree that it is a surely deserved distinction.

As you’d expect in an ancient city, Lisbon holds a number of treasures from other civilizations under ground.  Every time a hole is dug up for a new metro station, an underground car park, or for any new building, it is common to find artifacts from the Roman, Moorish, and other periods of Lisbon’s past. Some are taken to the city’s museums, other less important creations are buried forever.

One find that has been kept in its original location just as it was found are the “Roman Galleries” in the center of the city. They’re found on Rua da Prata right below a bank, and are only open to visitors once a year. This year they are open on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of September.

Entrance will be free, and taking place between 10AM and 6PM.  Experts from Lisbon’s City Museum will take you through the space that was only discovered during the Great Earthquake of 1755. It is believed to be a cryptoportico (a vaulted support for a forum or Roman villa) dating between the first century B.C. and first century A.D. when Lisbon was the Roman city Olissipo.

Stand by number 77 of Rua da Conceição and wait for your turn to be allowed in. You may not book in advance, and since only a few people can enter at a time, be prepared to wait a while.

If you enjoy archaeological remains, also visit the free Roman Theater Museum and the scant ruins behind it. Then go down the street to the city’s medieval cathedral which shows archaeological digs in its cloisters (see photo above).  Complete your archaeological lesson with a visit to the Archaeology Museum in Belem.

This will be a magical week in Lisbon. From now until Sunday the city’s main streets and squares will be filled with almost two dozen masters of illusion from several countries including Portugal, England, Sweden, USA, Spain, Australia, and Argentina. They’ll be making a total of 173 scheduled performances of magic tricks to stimulate the minds and imagination of both locals and tourists passing by.

It’s the third annual edition of the Lisboa Magica – Street Magic World Festival, which last year stopped 30,000 unsuspecting people in Camões Square, Rua Augusta, Figueira Square, Restauradores, Rossio, and Comercio Square.

Don’t expect to see a landmark disappear a la David Copperfield, but be prepared to be surprised by the tricks these magicians have up their sleeves. If you’re in town, be sure to be on the streets of Baixa and Chiado starting at noon on weekdays, and between 10AM and 10PM during the weekend and get ready for some “how they do that?” moments with the colors of Lisbon as the backdrop.