OPTICS
Remnants of the factory towns of yesteryear can still be found in modern European cities.
By AITOR HERNÁNDEZ-MORALES
in Lisbon
March 27, 2024 2:57 pm CET
This article is part of a special report, The New Factory Towns.
Every day thousands of tourists take Lisbon’s iconic 28 tram up to the Nossa Senhora do Monte viewpoint to snap panoramic shots of the Portuguese capital. As they make their way up the steep, narrow streets, they’re often too winded to notice that their climb is taking them through a field full of stars.
The stars are the remnants of the Estrella D’Ouro — or Golden Star — neighborhood, an eclectic complex built by empresário Agapito Serra Fernandes, a Galician migrant who made it big selling biscuits to the Portuguese military. The confectionery king branded his wares with a five-pointed star in honor of the Galician capital of Santiago de Compostela, whose name translates to “Saint James of the Field of Stars.”
After building a new factory atop Graça Hill, Serra Fernandes in 1905 decided to move both his family and his employees to the area for efficiency’s sake. While he built his own mansion, he also bought up surrounding land and erected a planned community with decent housing for his employees. The homes were clustered around patios to guarantee access to light and fresh air — a luxury for the working classes in a turn-of-the-century European capital.
To ensure his workers and their families had everything they needed, Serra Fernandes also commissioned the construction of a church, a school, a social club and even a state-of-the-art movie theater, in which Portugal’s first “talkie” was projected in 1930. For the canny businessman, the model neighborhood was also a giant advertisement for his company, and to this day its iconic five-point star is everywhere: on porticos, street signs, tiled murals, iron railings, and even in the delicately chiseled Portuguese pavement.
While the Estrella D’Ouro company is long gone, the planned community it fostered lives on. Serra Fernandes’ mansion is now a retirement home, and his wife and daughter live on in the names of the neighborhood’s streets. Meanwhile, the workers’ houses are sought-after residences in what’s now one of Lisbon’s trendiest neighborhoods.
The buildings and their decorative elements are a lasting testimony to the biscuit magnate who gave his employees a home among the stars.