Today the Mouraria, a maze of narrow alleys, cobblestonesquares and decrepit buildings strung with washing at the heart of Lisbon,is known more for drugs and prostitution than as a tourist stop. But theneighbourhood, one of the capital's oldest, is also where Portugal's melancholynational song style, the fado, was born in the 19th century, a bit of historythat locals want to tap in a district long neglected by city hall where evenLisbonites rarely venture.
To do so, a grassroots group called Renovate the Mourariahas set up a programme of free "singing" tours, accompanied by fadoartists, to show off this working-class area now home to a jumble of Portuguese,Indians, Pakistanis, Africans and Chinese. The two-centuries old genre has seenan explosion of new "fadistas", as the singers and musicians arecalled, and styles in the last decade. Meaning fate or destiny, fado is said toembody the nostalgia that shaped the Portuguese experience, back to its famed15th-17th century navigators who found new lands and trade routes that made thesmall European state a power with colonies on three continents.
It embodies the "saudade", roughly translatable aslonging or melancholy, for those who scattered across the empire or died atsea. The hour-long tours take place every Friday to Sunday until the end ofSeptember. Volunteers meet visitors at a small white chapel with a black ironcross called Nossa Senhora da Saude then guide them through the colourful"bairro", or neighbourhood, named for the Moors who settled theremore than nine centuries ago.
"For centuries this neighbourhood has been unjustlyforgotten," said one guide, 54-year-old Nuno Franco. "Fado was bornhere, from traditional African songs. It quickly became the song of sailors andthe working class." He points out a guitar-shaped stone monument erectedto remind all "we are in the cradle of the fado", then heads to asmall house on one of the narrow alleys where Severa, the first great fadosinger, was born in the 1820s.
"Our goal is for those who live here to rediscovertheir pride, to attract new people and to help the neighbourhood'seconomy," said Lisbon's socialist Mayor Antonio Costa, who last yearmoved his own offices to another neglected district right near Mouraria. "Wethink fado can contribute to that."
