Paço do Lumiar: a Village of Quintas in the North of Lisbon
Lisbon has a village where the quintas never left.
North of Campo Grande, past the airport roads and the new avenues, the city suddenly slows down. Paço do Lumiar is a single old street, a few squares and a string of country estates that Lisbon absorbed without quite digesting. Its name is a title deed: the paço, the palace, that King Dinis gave to his son in 1312.
A palace for a prince
In 1312 King Dinis gave a country estate at Lumiar to his son Afonso Sanches. Under Afonso IV the residence came to be called the Paço do Lumiar, and the name stayed with the place. Over the centuries, courtiers, merchants and noble families built their quintas along the road: houses for summer, with gardens, orchards and tile.
Monteiro-Mor: a botanist's park
The largest of them is the Quinta do Monteiro-Mor, some eleven hectares. In the eighteenth century the Marquis of Angeja commissioned the Italian botanist Domenico Vandelli to plant its park; in 1840 the estate passed to the Duke of Palmela, under whom the botanist Friedrich Welwitsch looked after the gardens. Today the state owns it: the Palácio do Monteiro-Mor houses the National Museum of Theatre and Dance, the Angeja-Palmela palace the National Costume Museum, and the park, with its labelled trees, lakes and parterres, is open to all.
The Quinta dos Azulejos
A few steps away, the Quinta dos Azulejos earned its name honestly. It was built from 1745 for António Colaço Torres, a goldsmith's son, and received a royal visit in 1753. Its garden is a gallery of eighteenth-century tile, much of it from the Real Fábrica do Rato. Since 1935 it has belonged to a school, the Colégio Manuel Bernardes, which has kept the tiles in place.
A gallery of tile, kept by a school.
Nossa Senhora da Paz and the Sacavém tiles
At number 46 of the same road, the Quinta de Nossa Senhora da Paz was remodelled between 1929 and 1934 by Herbert Guilbert, the English owner of the Sacavém earthenware factory. He dressed its façades and courtyards in tiles made in his own factory, to designs by H. C. Sant'Anna and A. Ribeiro, and had its terraced garden laid out by the Porto horticulturist Jacintho de Mattos. Today it belongs to the city.
An Irish saint, and a poet
The parish church of São João Baptista do Lumiar guards one of the strangest stories in Lisbon: in 1283 three Irish knights arrived with the relic of Saint Brigid, and stayed. Their tombs are still in the church walls. And on the Rua Direita, a plaque marks the house where the poet Cesário Verde died.
In Paço do Lumiar, the city never quite replaced the country.
São Sebastião
At the top of the road, beside a chapel older than 1628, stands the Quinta de São Sebastião, an eighteenth-century estate rebuilt by Raul Lino in 1920, with a garden redrawn by Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles in 1970. Its stories are told in Before Lino, Raul Lino rebuilds a royal quinta and Ribeiro Telles and the garden.
The palace is for sale through Wiseguys Properties: see Garden of Eden.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Paço do Lumiar?
In the parish of Lumiar, in the north of Lisbon, near Carnide and Campo Grande.
Which museums are in Paço do Lumiar?
The National Costume Museum and the National Museum of Theatre and Dance, both in the Monteiro-Mor estate, with its botanical park.
What is the Quinta dos Azulejos?
An eighteenth-century estate, built from 1745, famous for the tiles of its garden. It has housed the Colégio Manuel Bernardes since 1935.
Who designed the Monteiro-Mor park?
The Italian botanist Domenico Vandelli, for the Marquis of Angeja, in the eighteenth century.
Is there a property for sale in Paço do Lumiar?
Yes: the palace of the Quinta de São Sebastião, through Wiseguys Properties, as Garden of Eden.
Further reading: Lisbon Neighbourhoods: Where to Live, Read Through Architecture.
Sources: Jardins Históricos de Portugal (Quinta dos Azulejos; Quinta de Nossa Senhora da Paz); SIPA, record 10421; Rota do Paço do Lumiar, Centro Cultural da Ponte (2025); Time Out Lisboa; The Portugal News (2026). Photography: Wiseguys Properties; context images: Wikimedia Commons and public sources.
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