5 Best Sights in Beato and Marvila, Lisbon

This magnificent space dedicated to the city's eye-catching azulejo tiles is one of the city's top tourist attractions—and with good reason. Housed in the 16th-century Madre de Deus convent and cloister, it displays a range of individual glazed tiles and elaborate pictorial panels. The 118-foot-long Panorama of Lisbon (1730) is a detailed study of the city and is reputedly the country's longest azulejo mosaic. The richly furnished convent church contains some sights of its own: of note are the gilt baroque decoration and lively azulejo works depicting the life of Saint Anthony. There's also an azulejo-covered café with a pleasant courtyard, and a gift shop that sells, naturally, tiles.

In early 2024, the opening of the cultural and commercial center 8 Marvila cemented the district's reputation as the capital of alternative cool. Occupying several of Marvila's old warehouses, the multiuse space encompasses shops for artisanal furniture, vintage clothing, cultivated plants, contemporary art, tarot readings, and wordy tattoos. Restaurants and food trucks serve vegetarian pizza, smash burgers, ramen, and tacos.

Housed in a former warehouse not far from the Museu Nacional do Azulejo in Marvila, a once run down part of the city that's emerged as a creative hub, this vast space is named for one of Europe’s leading female art dealers, Filomena Soares. The gallery represents leading Portuguese and international artists like Sara Bichão and the late Dan Graham. An immersive rooftop installation by Graham of two-way mirror glass and steel remains in place, but isn’t regularly open to the public.

East of most of the city's sights in the sprawling Parque das Nações, home to Europe's largest indoor aquarium, which wows children and adults alike with a vast saltwater tank featuring a massive array of fish, including several shark species. Along the way you'll pass through habitats representing the North Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, where puffins and penguins dive into the water, sea otters roll and play, and tropical birds flit past you. You then descend to the bottom of the tank to watch rays float past gracefully and schools of silvery fish dart this way and that. To avoid the crowds, come during the week or early in the day.

One of Lisbon's most important contemporary art galleries, Underdogs, founded in 2010, works with some of the most renowned urban-inspired contemporary artists from around the world. Not only are there several solo and group shows in the warehouse-type space, but the founders formed a partnership with the city to give local, international, well-known, and up-and-coming artists spaces to create street art. They had a hand in some of the city's most iconic murals, including pieces by local hero Vhils and American artist Shepard Fairey; a map of pieces they commissioned is on their website.