Campo de Santa Clara & the Feira da Ladra

Why is it significant?

Walk into the long square under the trees and, if the market is on, slow right down. Blankets on the ground, tables of old records, brass door knockers, army jackets, broken clocks, family photographs of strangers... and, on some tables, a pile of old tiles.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Walk into the long square under the trees and, if the market is on, slow right down. Blankets on the ground, tables of old records, brass door knockers, army jackets, broken clocks, family photographs of strangers... and, on some tables, a pile of old tiles.

This is the Feira da Ladra, Lisbon's flea market, and it is old. A market of this kind is recorded in the city as far back as the Middle Ages, and it wandered between several squares before settling here in Campo de Santa Clara in the 1880s. Nobody agrees on the name. Ladra means a female thief, and the joke is obvious: you may find your own stolen bicycle on sale. But some historians think it comes from older words, perhaps one meaning a riverbank.

Those loose tiles deserve a second look. For years, Lisbon's tiled façades were stripped by thieves, and panels from churches and palaces turned up for sale in markets and antique shops. In 2007 the Polícia Judiciária's museum launched a project called SOS Azulejo to record stolen tiles, warn buyers and get pieces back where they belong. So when you see a beautiful old tile on a blanket, it is fair to wonder which wall it came from.

On a good day, though, this is one of the most joyful places in the city: collectors arguing over a cracked plate, students hunting vinyl, grandmothers selling crochet, and the dome of the Pantheon shining at the end of the square like a giant white bubble.

Look across the square, too, at the old palaces that line it. Some of their walls still wear tiles, safely out of reach. Keep walking east towards that dome. It belongs to a church with the most famous delay in Portuguese history.