Portela (Loures)
Encyclopedia
Portela is a Portuguese
civil parish in the municipality
of Loures
, in the district of Lisbon
.
definitions: portela is derived from a corruption of the Latin
portulla or portella, which means small door or entryway, since it can be considered the accessway to Lisbon (and/or south part of the Tagus estuary); the term portela is also, literally a point where a road or street forms a bend or angle, ordinarily in a bottleneck or tributary. Geographically, the second statement is also true, since the parish's northern limits are cornered by two important bends (Avenida Infante Dom Henriques-IC17 and IC17-A1).
Portela's masterplan was deeply inspired by Swiss
architect Le Corbusier
's utopian scheme of "A Contemporary City for 3 Million People" (1922), and its urbanism based on the premise of a modern architecture that was exposed it to the maximum levels of sun, air and nature (as stated in the 1933 Athens Charter
of Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
).
Similarly, in the early part of the 1960s, a development in Buenos Aires
had a comparable affect on the future urbanization of Portela; the development was geometric in design, with composite linear roadways around a central centre. In Lisbon, a similar layout was achieved by a New York architect, who was commissioned to construct a development that centred on a large commercial mall in the 1970s (the first of its type to be completed using urban planning concepts in the capital). The idea was to organize apartment blocks around a central commercial structure, in order to create a pole of socio-economic activities. Constituted in 1985, the civil parish of Portela has become a Portuguese reference for urban architecture.
In 1965, a draft plan for the future scheme was approved by the Government, implying the expropriation of five farms which were sharing this parcel of land and supplying Lisbon
with agricultural goods. The plan, covering an area of 50 hectares
, laid out a vision for a future area with 4500 homes and all sort of social equipments, responding to the big demand of housing for the people who were flocking to the Capital in a high number either from the ex-colonies in Africa or from other parts of the country.
The early residents of the modern Portela were young couples with their children, many returning from the Portuguese Colonies, others liberal professionasl such as lawyers, engineers, physicians, or judges and some older politicians, ostensibly from middle- to upper-middle class. The growth of the region was influenced by the youth culture, a bohemian collection of punk, metal, anarchist and others on the vanguard of the youth movement, who would spend time in the Bairro Alto district, ending their nights in Cais do Sodré, Jamaica, Tóquio or Shangrila. As time evolved, the Association of Portela Homeowners, the parish Church and the Junta Freguesia became more active in the activities of the residents. By the 1990s, the youth movement had moved onto to areas of Alcântara-Mar, the Kapital or the Kremlin. At this time, the Esplanada da Portela (the main strip), with its open-air green-spaces attracted more of the local residents, and slowly the tennis courts and football field were constructed to fix the local population. As the population continued to age, many married and moved away, although some remained in the region while others moved closer to the river's edge, as the Expo 98 lands were repurposed for residential living.
, Prior Velho
and the municipality of Lisbon
(parish of Santa Maria dos Olivais), Portela includes approximately 20,000 inhabitants in an area of about one km². It is located barely two kilometres from Lisbon's International Airport and at the intersection of two of Portugal's main road axisways: the A1 (Lisbon-Oporto motorway) and A12-IC17 CRIL (Circular Regional Interior de Lisboa) inter-urban ring-roadway (linking it directly to the Vasco da Gama bridge and the southern part of the Tagus estuary. The parish is situated on a gentle slope running west to east forming a slight plateau. Starting from the southern edge of the Seminary of Olivais, the southern border extends east to the on/off-ramps of the Vasco da Gama bridge, then follows the motorway northeast until the intersection of the A1-E1 cloverleaf interchange
. The border then follows the A1-E1 west until the interchange at Avenida Mal. Craveiro Lopes, where it bypasses the Avenida Dr. Alfredo Bensaúde, instead following the Estrada da Circunvalação until the Largo dos Bombeiros, before returning to the Seminary. It is several blocks north of the Parque das Nações (Nation's Park), which lies in the neighbouring Santa Maria dos Olivais.
Its demographics identify an area that includes 41% youth, while only 5.6% seniors, indicating a relatively young population; infant natality (130) to mortality (63) from 1997 identifies a community that is growing (1997). Portela is a high-density residential neighborhood situated on the northeastern section of Lisbon's city boundary. It's the home of 15441 people, most of whom commute to Lisbon
for work and leisure.
The Commercial Centre of Portela , the Church of Cristo Rei da Portela, the Parque Desportivo da Associação dos Moradores da Portela, the Seminary of Olivais and the parks of Almeida Garrett and Descobertas, are examples of the urban social and cultural structures that have attracted residents to the area in the past. The Centro Comercial is situated in the heart of the civil parish, at the former-centre of the communities traditional centre. It was remodelled and reinvigorated to include new shops such as computer and technology, spas, clothing/apparel outlets and shoe shops, in addition to banking. The Church of Cristo Rei da Portela is the pride of the Catholic faith community; erected slowly, through local contributions, it is a significant modern architectural design uncommon to the other Portuguese styles. The parish's two heated pools (25 x 12.5 metres) are used for competitive competitions and swimming classes, while another pool (12.5 x 8 metres), operated by the municipal company GesLoures is used for classes and training. The facilities were one of the few buildings to the constructed to be energy efficient, recyling energy, utilizing solar panels and reducing the consume of energy and emissions of carbon dioxide. The Parque Desportivo has three tennis courts and field, an esplanade and a swimming pool. Generally, the parish is a linear alignment of roads, comprising a hundred 10- to 12-storey buildings, that form a rectangle which has a circular shaped shopping centre and a 20-storey tower at its very middle point.
With a large population density (approximately 169 inhabitants per square kilometre), the parish is equipped with many collective structures including water supplies, sewage treatment, garbage pickup (with access to landfill in Vila Franca de Xira) and recently the canalization of natural gas.
In the northwest corner of the civil parish, on the corner of Avenida do Ralis and the Estrada da Circunvalação, remains a degraded part of this modern civil parish, consisting of dozens of bungalows, abandoned buildings and ruins.
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
civil parish in the municipality
Municipalities of Portugal
In Portugal, municipality or concelho is the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country.Portugal has an entirely separate system of cities and towns. Cities and towns are located in municipalities, but often do not have the same boundaries, even if built-up is continuous...
of Loures
Loures
Loures Municipality is a municipality to the north of Lisbon. Created on 26 July 1886 by a royal decree, the municipality currently occupies an area of 169 km² and has about 200,000 inhabitants . It borders the municipalities of Odivelas, Sintra, Mafra, Arruda dos Vinhos, Vila Franca de Xira...
, in the district of Lisbon
Lisboa (district)
Lisbon District is a district located in the South Central Portugal, the district capital is the city of Lisbon, also the national capital.-Municipalities:The district is composed of 16 municipalities:* Alenquer Municipality* Amadora Municipality...
.
History
In toponymic terms, Portela gets its name from two PortuguesePortuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
definitions: portela is derived from a corruption of the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
portulla or portella, which means small door or entryway, since it can be considered the accessway to Lisbon (and/or south part of the Tagus estuary); the term portela is also, literally a point where a road or street forms a bend or angle, ordinarily in a bottleneck or tributary. Geographically, the second statement is also true, since the parish's northern limits are cornered by two important bends (Avenida Infante Dom Henriques-IC17 and IC17-A1).
Portela's masterplan was deeply inspired by Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
architect Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
's utopian scheme of "A Contemporary City for 3 Million People" (1922), and its urbanism based on the premise of a modern architecture that was exposed it to the maximum levels of sun, air and nature (as stated in the 1933 Athens Charter
Athens Charter
The Athens Charter, or Charte d'Athènes was a document about urban planning published by the Swiss architect, Le Corbusier in 1943. The work was based upon Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse book of 1935 and urban studies undertaken by the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne in the early...
of Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne – CIAM was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged around the world by the most prominent architects of the time, with the objective of spreading the principles of the Modern...
).
Similarly, in the early part of the 1960s, a development in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
had a comparable affect on the future urbanization of Portela; the development was geometric in design, with composite linear roadways around a central centre. In Lisbon, a similar layout was achieved by a New York architect, who was commissioned to construct a development that centred on a large commercial mall in the 1970s (the first of its type to be completed using urban planning concepts in the capital). The idea was to organize apartment blocks around a central commercial structure, in order to create a pole of socio-economic activities. Constituted in 1985, the civil parish of Portela has become a Portuguese reference for urban architecture.
In 1965, a draft plan for the future scheme was approved by the Government, implying the expropriation of five farms which were sharing this parcel of land and supplying Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
with agricultural goods. The plan, covering an area of 50 hectares
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
, laid out a vision for a future area with 4500 homes and all sort of social equipments, responding to the big demand of housing for the people who were flocking to the Capital in a high number either from the ex-colonies in Africa or from other parts of the country.
The early residents of the modern Portela were young couples with their children, many returning from the Portuguese Colonies, others liberal professionasl such as lawyers, engineers, physicians, or judges and some older politicians, ostensibly from middle- to upper-middle class. The growth of the region was influenced by the youth culture, a bohemian collection of punk, metal, anarchist and others on the vanguard of the youth movement, who would spend time in the Bairro Alto district, ending their nights in Cais do Sodré, Jamaica, Tóquio or Shangrila. As time evolved, the Association of Portela Homeowners, the parish Church and the Junta Freguesia became more active in the activities of the residents. By the 1990s, the youth movement had moved onto to areas of Alcântara-Mar, the Kapital or the Kremlin. At this time, the Esplanada da Portela (the main strip), with its open-air green-spaces attracted more of the local residents, and slowly the tennis courts and football field were constructed to fix the local population. As the population continued to age, many married and moved away, although some remained in the region while others moved closer to the river's edge, as the Expo 98 lands were repurposed for residential living.
Geography
Bordering the urban parishes of Moscavide, SacavémSacavém
Sacavém is a Portuguese civil parish , in the municipality of Loures, just a few kilometers northeast of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The parish covers an area of , with a population of 17,659 inhabitants...
, Prior Velho
Prior Velho
Prior Velho is a parish in the municipality of Loures, District of Lisbon , Portugal....
and the municipality of Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
(parish of Santa Maria dos Olivais), Portela includes approximately 20,000 inhabitants in an area of about one km². It is located barely two kilometres from Lisbon's International Airport and at the intersection of two of Portugal's main road axisways: the A1 (Lisbon-Oporto motorway) and A12-IC17 CRIL (Circular Regional Interior de Lisboa) inter-urban ring-roadway (linking it directly to the Vasco da Gama bridge and the southern part of the Tagus estuary. The parish is situated on a gentle slope running west to east forming a slight plateau. Starting from the southern edge of the Seminary of Olivais, the southern border extends east to the on/off-ramps of the Vasco da Gama bridge, then follows the motorway northeast until the intersection of the A1-E1 cloverleaf interchange
Cloverleaf interchange
A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange in which left turns, reverse direction in left-driving regions, are handled by ramp roads...
. The border then follows the A1-E1 west until the interchange at Avenida Mal. Craveiro Lopes, where it bypasses the Avenida Dr. Alfredo Bensaúde, instead following the Estrada da Circunvalação until the Largo dos Bombeiros, before returning to the Seminary. It is several blocks north of the Parque das Nações (Nation's Park), which lies in the neighbouring Santa Maria dos Olivais.
Its demographics identify an area that includes 41% youth, while only 5.6% seniors, indicating a relatively young population; infant natality (130) to mortality (63) from 1997 identifies a community that is growing (1997). Portela is a high-density residential neighborhood situated on the northeastern section of Lisbon's city boundary. It's the home of 15441 people, most of whom commute to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
for work and leisure.
The Commercial Centre of Portela , the Church of Cristo Rei da Portela, the Parque Desportivo da Associação dos Moradores da Portela, the Seminary of Olivais and the parks of Almeida Garrett and Descobertas, are examples of the urban social and cultural structures that have attracted residents to the area in the past. The Centro Comercial is situated in the heart of the civil parish, at the former-centre of the communities traditional centre. It was remodelled and reinvigorated to include new shops such as computer and technology, spas, clothing/apparel outlets and shoe shops, in addition to banking. The Church of Cristo Rei da Portela is the pride of the Catholic faith community; erected slowly, through local contributions, it is a significant modern architectural design uncommon to the other Portuguese styles. The parish's two heated pools (25 x 12.5 metres) are used for competitive competitions and swimming classes, while another pool (12.5 x 8 metres), operated by the municipal company GesLoures is used for classes and training. The facilities were one of the few buildings to the constructed to be energy efficient, recyling energy, utilizing solar panels and reducing the consume of energy and emissions of carbon dioxide. The Parque Desportivo has three tennis courts and field, an esplanade and a swimming pool. Generally, the parish is a linear alignment of roads, comprising a hundred 10- to 12-storey buildings, that form a rectangle which has a circular shaped shopping centre and a 20-storey tower at its very middle point.
With a large population density (approximately 169 inhabitants per square kilometre), the parish is equipped with many collective structures including water supplies, sewage treatment, garbage pickup (with access to landfill in Vila Franca de Xira) and recently the canalization of natural gas.
In the northwest corner of the civil parish, on the corner of Avenida do Ralis and the Estrada da Circunvalação, remains a degraded part of this modern civil parish, consisting of dozens of bungalows, abandoned buildings and ruins.