The Street Art Murals of Bairro da Torre in Cascais, Portugal

Take a wander somewhere randomly in Portugal and you never really know what street art gems you might come across. That was certainly the case in the coastal town of Cascais. There, looking for a piece from the local artist Add Fuel, I stumbled on a whole lot more.

A short bus ride takes you from the centre of Cascais to the Torre neighbourhood. There, the artist painted a giant mural of a fishwife back in 2016. Standing proud on the side of tenement block its blue and white tile effect is distinctive of much of his work in the area. Many of the buildings in Cascais have similarly coloured tiles fronting their homes.

Street Art in the Torre Neighbourhood

Painted for the Muraliza festival it was one of a number of murals painted for that event. The Torre neighbourhood was built in the 60’s designed as a suburb for relocated fishermen and their families. The town of Cascais, fast becoming a sought after and aspirational place, had once been a fishing village. The wives would sell the fresh fish brought home by their husbands. Add Fuels piece is a homage to that dying tradition.

More murals were added during the Infinito Festival in 2018. Now, as a result, there are a whole host of giant murals that can be seen. Earlier in the year we reported on a similar project which can be found not too far away in the suburb of Bairro Padre Cruz in Lisbon. These are attempts at breathing new energy into neighbourhoods like these by using art as a means to regenerate. The result, as seen below, are some truly breathtaking giant works of art.

The area of Bairro da Torre in Cascais was visited on Sunday 8 September 2019 and all photographs were taken on that day.

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