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The emblematic Rossio neighborhood that housed Pastelaria Suíça for decades will be renovated and transformed into a large commercial and service space. Very degraded for years and almost totally empty, the buildings will once again have a Pombaline architectural design.
That is the proposal of the developer, the real estate agency JCKL Portugal, and the architects of the Contact Atlântico atelier, who will vote this Thursday in the Lisbon Chamber. The project includes the maintenance of Pérola do Rossio – the only store with a history in the block since Ourivesaria Portugal and Casa da Sorte closed – and the installation of a new anchor store that will occupy almost every floor. There should be offices in the attic.
The Rossio Pombalino project, as it is called, leaves aside the uses of housing and hotels that came to be thought for the place. “The block is located in a nerve center between the noblest and most dynamic commercial areas of the city, such as Avenida da Liberdade and Chiado. So we understood, after a careful evaluation, that what made sense to make the project viable and the large investment that the intervention required was to assume that commercial value of the block, ”explains Patrícia Rodrigues, from JCKL, to the PUBLIC.
According to this official, the project “aims to help commercially revitalize the Baixa area, which has now been greatly diminished by the circumstances arising from the pandemic crisis.”
Confirming that he had already received “several expressions of interest” for the project and not wanting, for now, to say which store will occupy almost the entire block, Patrícia Rodrigues says that the promoter’s expectation is to have the work ready and open to the public “in maximum in mid-2023 ”.
Perspective of how the block should look
Mirage Virtual Reality / Atlantic Contact
The first step must be taken this Thursday with the approval of the architectural project by the chamber, which will be followed by the evaluation of the license. The PCP councilors have already announced that they will vote against the proposal. “Once again, we are witnessing a missed opportunity to endow the city center with a desirable multifunctionality that keeps the city inhabited and alive, while preserving the heritage and history of the city,” the communists said in a statement. “PCP believes that it is not through commercial mega-companies that the historic center of Lisbon is revitalized.”
Returns the “Pombaline concept”
One of the main characteristics of the project is its desire to recover the five buildings on the block following the rules of the Cartular Pombalino, a set of technical documentation that was drawn up after the 1755 earthquake with rules on how to build the new Baixa de Lisboa .
Thus, profound changes are foreseen, especially on the ground floor and on the ceiling, to bring them closer to the pombaline matrix and aesthetics. In the place where the Swiss pastry shop used to work, for example, the doors and windows that still characterize much of Baixa were long ago replaced by other models, but now they should resume the original layout.
It will be a “measured intervention and faithful to the original”, explains Francisca Alves, from Contacto Atlântico, in a video broadcast two days ago in which the main lines of the project are explained. “We propose to standardize coverage with a solution closer to Baixa Pombalina and its immediate surroundings,” says the architect.
Explaining that the different commercial occupations were altering the structure of the block, the architect André Caiado says, in the same video, that “the building [se] in very bad condition ”and that many interior walls are missing. “On the ground floor, we will have the opportunity to replace the floor in limestone slabs,” he adds, also referring to the maintenance of the worked ceilings, stairs and elevator, although this is after the 18th century. “Our perspective for the rehabilitation of this building is the same that we have had in so many others in Baixa Pombalina: to restore the originality of the Pombaline concept to the building,” concludes André Caiado.
The restoration and maintenance of the furniture and ceiling painting of the old Manteigaria União, as well as the ornate wedge of the old Ourivesaria Portugal, is also planned. Since the closure of Pastelaria Suíça in 2018, a shotgun, and more recently jewelry and Casa da Sorte (already during the pandemic), the block is occupied only by the Pérola do Rossio tea and coffee shop, a classified historical shop. by the Lisbon Chamber.
Two years ago, the municipality resumed a controversial project of laying tiles on all the facades of Praça da Figueira and the first winner was the Swiss block. Patrícia Rodrigues says that it is not up to the prosecutor to “issue opinions” in this regard and that he will do what the municipality decides. In 2018, the chamber told the PUBLIC that it would only approve the licensing of works in the square, if they contemplated the laying of tiles.
