I found an illustration of my neighborhood (
#Rato) from around 1856. It shows Largo do Rato in the center, which is still there today and serves as a busy transport hub for the metro and buses. Where I currently live would have been farmland (probably mulberry ("amoreiras" em português) trees given the proximity to Amoreiras - an industrial district created for the production of silks that still produces silk ribbons today).
In the top right you can also see the Mai de Agua reservoir connected to the
#Aqueduto das Águas Livres running alongside the Praca das
#Amoreiras, also still here today. The photos included here show the park in modern times. Interestingly, the map also shows that the Igreja das Amoreiras (a chapel built into the aqueduct's arches) was already there at the time! Seeing people take communion at a tiny church built into an aqueduct was something else the first time I witnessed it.
The blog "Lisbon - Compared With Other Times" describes why the neighborhood is called Rato - something I have long wondered:
"The name of this area comes from the nickname that popularized the forgotten patron saint of Convento Trino, which dominates the square and until the end of the 19th century was the only building with noble features. In 1621, Manuel Gomes de Elvas, an influential New Christian in Lisbon, founded a convent there for Ladies of the Order of the Holy Trinity, the first of this Order in Lisbon. After his death, he continued to be patronized by his descendants, one of them, Luís Gomes de Sá e Meneses, was nicknamed “o Rato”, a nickname that stuck to the convent and extended to the wide frontier." (info source:
http://lisboahojeeontem.blogspot.com/2012/10/largo-do-rato.html)
Illustration source: Jardins Históricos de Portugal - Memória & Futuro, Atlas de Carta Topográfica de Lisboa (Filipe Folque, 1856-58)
#rato #lisbon #lisboa #portugal #campodeourique #amoreiras #history #maps #cartography #jardimsoflisbon #aqueduto