O palácio de D. Gastão, no sítio do Grilo

Abstract

Located between Xabregas and Grilo, in the Eastern part of Lisbon, the palace of D. Gastão goes unnoticed by the city’s inhabitants. The building belonged to an architectural morphology typical of the riverbank, with a main façade facing the Tagus river, of which not many examples have been preserved. The shoreline from Santa Apolónia to Poço do Bispo has been dramatically transformed as a result of the major changes brought about in the urban east by the construction of factories and workers’ neighbourhoods, the railroads, and, most importantly, the Tagus embankment. Nevertheless, many palaces from the 17th and 18th centuries still stand along this path, hidden from view, among abandoned warehouses and industrial wreckage. The building mentioned in this text is a classic example of this circumstance. After losing its river connection and suffering the effects of industrialization, the building’s fate remains unknown as part of the principle of urban regeneration that has swept over the city’s eastern outskirts since the end of the twentieth century.