Moorish Quarter
Ancient Moorish enclave from 1147, birthplace of fado and the legend of Maria Severa.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Moorish Quarter in Lisbon follows Maria Severa, a fado singer born to a Romani father and a mother known locally as A Barbuda, and the count who walked into a Mouraria tavern in the 1840s and heard her sing. It traces the neighborhood back to 1147, when Lisbon's Muslim population was confined here outside the city walls, and the mix of migrants and outsiders whose friction gave rise to fado itself. The count took Severa to bullfights around the city as aristocratic Lisbon watched a singer from these streets cross a line it had never crossed.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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