Where to live in Lisbon – a basic geographical primer

Lisbon Quick Facts

Lisbon is a large complex European city and the easiest way to get a BASIC understanding of it is to look at the geography of Lisbon. This can be immensely confusing as the administrative divisions have changed a few times (after the revolution in 1974 and also when joining the EU). There is the Lisbon District, Greater Lisbon and the Lisbon Metropolitan Authority? Let’s just call it Greater Lisbon for simplicity and this is where 2.8 million people live. This includes 18 municipalities, many of which are north of the river in orange (including Sintra, Cascais, Lisbon, Mafra, Oeiras and more) and some are south of the river in red (including Almada, Setubal, Barrero etc).

Greater Lisbon Municipalities

North of the Tejo River

1. Amadora
2. Cascais
3. Lisbon
4. Loures
5. Mafra
6. Odivelas
7. Oeiras
8. Sintra
9. Vila Franca de Xira

South of the Tejo River

1. Alcochete
2. Almada
3. Barreiro
4. Moita
5. Montijo
6. Palmela
7. Seixal
8. Sesimbra
9. Setúbal

Lisbon City

Lisbon municipality, one of the 18 within the Greater Lisbon Area is Lisbon City proper and 544 thousand people live there (which is more than the entire population of the Algarve!)

If you want to figure out where to live in Lisbon itself, you need to know the lay of the land. A part of this is understanding the FREGUESIAS the exist in central Lisbon. The municipality (like any municipality (or CONCELHO) in Portugal is divided up into Freguesias. Lisbon now has 24 freguesias.

The challenge is that locals use a different terminology in addition to the Freguesia names… they also refer to neighborhoods, some of which are mysterious areas with no actual borders. Just vague areas like Baixa or “downtown”.

Here is a list of all 24 Freguesias in Lisbon and a map.

1. Belem
2. Ajuda
3. Alcântara
4. Campo de Ourique
5. Estrela
6. Santo Antonio
7. Misericordia
8. Arroios
9. Santa Maria Maior
10. São Vicente
11. Penha da França
12. Areeiro
13. Beato
14. Alvalade
15. Marvila
16. Olivais
17. Parque das Nações
18. Santa Clara
19. Lumiar
20. Carnide
21. São Domingos de Benfica
22. Avenidas Novas
23. Campolide
24. Benfica

A few notes

I did a lot of reading on the reading and came across some great blogs and official sites about Lisbon. Here are a few notes on the different neighborhoods:

1. Avenidas Novas (middle to upper class)
2. Alfama forms part of the Santa Vitoria Maior Freguesia & Graca (São Vicente Freguesia)
3. Bairro Alto – artists, pensioners and immigrants live here but it can get noisy and dirty after nights of drinking on the streets
4. Baixa – not popular for living but its changing slowly.
5. Belem, Ajuda and Restelo – middle class to upper class, west of the center.
6. Campo do Ourique – middle to upper class, great neighborhood atmosphere, north west of the center, near Amoreiras Shopping Center.
7. Chiado – sophisticated and expensive and pretty touristy (on the border between Misericordia and Santa Maria Maior Freguesias).
8. Parque das Nações upper middle class great for families and feels like a suburb.
9. Príncipe Real – great residential, expensive (In 2018 it was reported that Scarlett Johansson had bought a house here).

Something that has fascinated me for some time are the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Explore fascinating UNESCO heritage sites in Lisbon, view a guide here https://www.loveholidays.com/holidays/portugals-best-unesco-sites/ Who knows, maybe I might make a video about all 17 one day!