The Rua do Guarda-Mor (
Portuguese for ''"Street of the chief archivist"'') is a
street
A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...
in
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
, which formerly belonged to the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
(
freguesia
(), usually translated as "parish" or "civil parish", is the third-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution. It is also the designation for local government jurisdictions in the former Portuguese over ...
) of
Santos-o-Velho, more precisely to the sub-parish of Madragoa. Following the 2012 Lisbon Administrative Reform, the street now belongs to the newly created parish of
Estrela. It starts at Rua das Trinas and ends at Rua São João da Mata.
History
Already in 1565 the street is mentioned as Rua do Guarda-Mor de Alfandega in the Livro do Lançamento.
Bernardo Gomes de Brito, Portuguese historian and scholar, refers to it as a main artery road of Lisbon of the
sixteenth century. At that time it stretched from Rua das Trinas to Rua do Cura. With the 1859 Lisbon Civil Government Notice, the street got extended to include the Travessa da Palha (previously Rua da Palha de Santos) between Rua da Cura and Rua São João da Mata.
Toponymy
The street's name derives from the nobleman Manuel de Sande, Guarda-Mor da Alfandega, who lived there together with his wife and daughter. He died there on March 6, 1603.
Particular buildings
* #42-44: An ornament dating from the end of the 18th century consisting of tiles decorates the building's walls. The ornament shows
rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
elements as well as
neoclassical ones and represents the figure of
Nossa Senhora de Penha de França with the child
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
on her left arm and a scepter in her right hand.
* #39-43: João de Sousa Pinto de Magalhães lived and died in this building at the corner of Rua São João da Mata 16-20 on May 1, 1863.
* #20: This building is one of the very rare buildings in this area which survived the
1755 earthquake. On its second floor a large tiles ornament is still in place.
References
External links
Toponymy of Lisbon(in Portuguese)
{{Lisbon
Streets in Lisbon