Where to find Street Art in Lisbon
The simple answer to where you can find street art in Lisbon – just about anywhere you can imagine. During my time in Lisbon, I saw some works from some amazing street artists from Portugal and around the world from wandering around and taking a street art tour. I love how hunting for street art has become such a fun way for me to explore and understand a city. I put together this Lisbon street art guide with some recommendations on the best spots to check out street art in Lisbon.
By no means is this list exhaustive or definitive, merely a recap of some of the places I visited and loved – there are plenty of corners unexplored left for you to discover. Also, street art is ephemeral and this list might change very quickly for all I know.
If you love Portugal’s street art scene, I was wowed by the works in Lagos, and Porto had a lot of beautiful artworks as well. I also randomly stumbled upon a Vhils exhibition in Belem and he’s become one of my favourite street artists now.
Lisbon Street art Locations
I’ve marked out the street art spots on this Google Map so you can find them easily.
Galeria de Arte Urbana (GAU)
Street art is so important to Lisbon that they set up GAU – Galeria de Arte Urbana or the Urban Art Gallery under the wing of the city’s culture and heritage department as a place for street artists to let loose. Proposals are put forth and those accepted get to translate their ideas onto large billboards set up along the sloping street – these works change very regularly so you’ll always see something different here. There is another long wall on the adjacent street about halfway down the slope which is a more free for all type of wall where people can just let loose.
How to get there: Take the subway to Restauradores and if you’re feeling rather sprightly, walk up the crazy steep slope of Calçada da Glória where you’ll find the works near the top of the slope and on the adjacent Largo da Oliveirinha. If you have a day pass, why not take the very graffiti-ed funicular (which costs 3.60 euros per trip without!) to the top, and then slowly make your way down. Alternatively, approach from the Bairro Alto side of Rua São Pedro de Alcântara. Definitely better to walk down than up this slope!
Teatro Maria Vitoria
This old theatre district only has one functioning theatre now – the Teatro Maria Vitoria – the rest of it is like a very large empty parking lot. But it is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside, and contains more street art than you would think. Definitely have to thank the street art walk and Gabriela for bringing us here, I doubt we would have walked here on our own!
How to get there: It was a short walk from GAU – Parque Mayer is off the main Avenida da Liberdade close to the metro station Avenida. You should be able to see the sign for Teatro Maria Vitoria outside, and another sign which points to Restaurant A Gina, which is apparently quite good.
Crono Project
The Crono Project in 2010 invited international names to collaborate with local Portuguese street artists, and was one of the events that garnered quite a lot of international attention and placed Lisbon on the top of the street art map. These works are pretty eye catching and hard to miss if you take the bus from the airport into the main city area.
How to get there: The buildings are located on Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo. The closest subway station is Picoas on the Verde/green line where the right entrance will put you right next to the building. Alternatively, I walked from Parque station on the Azul/blue line which was about 5 minutes away. There are two more works in the Crono Project which are at other locations – more info at Stick2Target.
Amoreiras
This particular spot is for those who really are quite passionate about street art and don’t mind a bit of a workout to get there – big props to Gabriela for bringing us here after the official street art tour tour was over to make up for us missing out on the first half of it! There is a massively long stretch of wall that surrounds an old fortress, which is now entirely covered with street art. It is one of the first places where street art first grew in Lisbon in about 1995 and some of its works have been on its walls for a very long time so its earned its place in Lisbon’s street art history. Gabriela recommended the West side walls along Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa for newer and better works – this stretch is almost 1km long so you can imagine the amount of art here!
How to get there: Amoreiras feels like a suburban area – bunch of fancy hotels in the area and much quieter than the downtown tourist stretch. The closest metro station is Marques de Pombal, but be warned that Avenida Eng Duarte Pacheco is a really, really long steep hill to climb up, and that’s saying something considering the number of slopes and hills there are in Portugal. You could take a bus – I grabbed a taxi from the nearby Amoreiras Shopping Centre after that because I could not walk any further, so that’s another landmark you can use for directions. The walls run along Rua Artilharia 1, Rua Marques de Fronteira and Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa.
Santa Apolonia Coastline
I passed this coastal stretch while heading up to the Azulejos Museum in Madre de Deus, and on the way back I decided to drop by to get a closer look at these works. Here you’ll find the larger than life collaborative works of local legend Vhils and Pixelpancho, and Wall Lisbon – Santa Apolonia painted under the Pampero Public Art Project in 2010. After that I walked inland and up towards Lisbon Se and the Castle.
How to get there: Take bus 728, 735, 759,794 and stop at Casa Conto bus stop along Avenida Infante Dom Henrique. It’s hard to miss the large collab works on the buildings by the coastline when you travel along this road.
Patio Dom Fradique
Perched right on top of the hill, the castle of Saint George has some pretty amazing views of Lisbon, but on the way down, make sure to look for Patio Dom Fradique. It’s where the remains of the Cerca Velha wall are, and this part of the ruins has been transformed into a rather organic outdoor gallery of sorts with various artworks and graffiti all over.
How to get there: Take Tram 28 or bus 736 up the hill to the Castelo and walk down. This particular spot is on the southeast corner of the hill. Look for Marker #2 Patio Dom Fradique, or if you’re going uphill, look for Beco do Maldonaldo off Rua Sao Tome
Lisbon Street Art Resources
Most of the time I google a destination to decide on some obvious must-sees like I did with Lagos, but it was a little impossible with Lisbon just because there is so much going on, so I made use of a couple of resources:
Lisbon Street Art Tour
This is a great way not just to see some of the good street artworks, but also to learn a little about the street artists and their backgrounds, and a bit of the history of the places that they are found in. Our guide Gabriela was really great, and even though we missed the first half of the tour because we were late, she went out of the way to show us around and even brought us to a more out of the way area to check out works when she found out we were really interested.
Currently, the tour is conducted on Wednesdays 10.30am and Saturdays 3pm (Oct – May) or Sundays 10.30am (Jun – Sep) and last about 2-3 hours, with the meeting point at the Luis de Camoes Square (Praca de Camoes). Payment is by donation, usually 10-15 euros on average, though the amount really is up to you.
Click here to learn more about Lisbon Street Art Tours. *Tour timings + website updated in 2017
Street Art Lisbon Vol 1
I bought myself this little book from Ler Devagar at LXFactory for 9 euros (I saw it marked up to 18 euros at other smaller shops!) which comes with a handy map cum poster that shows you where to find the works within the book, though remember that with the ephemeral nature of street art, some works might not exist any more! With the map in hand, I could pinpoint whether there were works in the area around me wherever I happened to be.
Read more about the Street Art Lisbon Vol 1 book.
This is just a smidgen of what I managed to find while I was in Lisbon in such a short period of time, so, Drop a note here if you know of any other street art hotspots in Lisbon to share! Also, check out my street art guide to Lagos if you want to see more awesome graffiti and murals in Portugal, or my full list of street art guides around the world.
ROA street art locations around the world – my sightings
Where to find Street Art in Bucharest
A little bit of London street art in Shoreditch
Where to find street art in Manchester’s Northern Quarter
Zaspa: The Gdansk Street Art Housing Estate
Where to find Street Art in Lagos, Portugal
Looking for more things to do in Lisbon? Check out my experience in Belem or why not head to Sintra or Cabo da Roca for a quick day trip out of Lisbon?
Hi !
Thanks for mentioning us :) and great post! very complete.
we have new schedule and website http://www.lisbonstreetarttours.com
also we have instagram account @lisbonstreetarttours
Hey Jaclynn, thank you for the great tip on street art! For me it is the best way to explore Lisbon and the Portuguese culture. Your post was so helpful.
We also tried to find out more about the stories and places of Lisbon’s street art: http://theglobaltreasurehunter.tumblr.com/post/137710039169/picture-lisbon-street-art-city-tour-by-jamie-lee
Hope you find it interesting as well :)
Thank you, great post! :)
Just spend a couple of days wandering Lisbon, looking for street art. Your guide was quite helpful! One little update – the Parque Mayer area is a bit of a mess. One of the theatres looks like it is being renovated and there is construction fencing blocking access to all the works (Writer’s Delight stuff) on the far back wall.
hey Andrew, thanks for the update and glad the guide was helpful for you! well the thing about street art is that it tends to be a bit transient, but hope that means we’ll get new works up soon :)