Feira da Ladra

Market · Campo de Santa ClaraLisbon,Portugal

A flea market recorded in Lisbon since the 1200s, held twice a week on one sloping square, most of it spread on blankets.

The Feira da Ladra is a flea market laid out on the ground of Campo de Santa Clara, the long sloping square between the National Pantheon and the monastery of São Vicente. Most of what is for sale comes out of Lisbon flats: cutlery, spectacles, army badges, records, saints, mismatched crockery, old door keys, spread on blankets by people who are not traders in any organised sense. There are antique tables too, and loose azulejos prised off buildings. Prices are whatever you agree. The name means thieves' fair, and a market under it is recorded in the city from the 1200s; it moved several times before settling here in 1882. It is held on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Early in the morning the dealers are still going through the goods and the best things are still on the ground. The organised tables pack up first, and the blanket sellers — the more interesting half — end up with the square to themselves.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Tuesdays and Saturdays only, from nine — the fair runs into the evening, but the dealers work the blankets at first light and the good things go before it fills up.
Bring cash and small notes — almost nothing takes cards, sellers on blankets rarely have change, and handing over a large note usually ends the sale.
It is a known pickpocket spot — the crowd is dense and everybody is leaning over the goods rather than watching their bag, so carry yours in front of you here.

Things to do

1
Watch the square being built
Arrive while the blankets are still going down on the cobbles. The sellers unpack in front of you, the best of what they brought is still on the ground, and the market assembles around you rather than appearing finished.
2
Buy something worthless on purpose
Pick up one small object nobody else wants — a spoon, a badge, a photograph of strangers — and ask the price. The exchange costs a euro or two, it is conducted in gestures if you have no Portuguese, and it is the difference between watching the market and using it.
3
Walk the square end to end between the churches
Start at the Pantheon end and go down through the stalls to São Vicente at the other. The market fills the slope between two of the biggest churches in the city, so walking it in one straight line lets you see the market and both monuments in the same morning.