Alvalade Square

The Alvalade Square (Polish: Praça de Alvalade) is an urban square in the city of Lisbon, Portugal, within the civil parish of Alvalade. It is centred on a roundabout at the intersection of Igreja and Roma Avenues.

Alvalade Square
The statue of Saint Anthony, located at the centre of the square, in 2013.
Completion	1940s
Location	Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal
Coordinates: 38°45′11.20″N 09°08′38.40″W

History

The square was built in the 1940s, during the construction of the housing estate of Alvalade. It was originally named the Monk Luís de Sousa Square (Portuguese: Largo Frei Luís de Sousa), after Luís de Sousa, a 16th- and 17th-century monk and prose-writer.^[1][2]

On 18 June 1972, Alvalade station of the Lisbon Metro was opened, with its entrances located around thr square. The station had been designed by architect Denis Gomes with wall artworks by Maria Keil. Its construction lasted from 1966 to 1972.^[3]

On 25 October 1971, the square was renamed Alvalade Square (Portuguese: Praça de Alvalade).^[1]

On 4 October 1972, the statue of Saint Anthony was unveiled at the centre of the square. It was designed by architect Carlos Antero Ferreira and sculptor António Duarte, between 1970 and 1972.^[4][5]

Characteristics

The Alvalade Square is centred around a roundabout at the intersection of Igreja and Roma Avenues^[1] In the centre, it features the statue of Saint Anthony. The monument is formed from a bronze statue with a height of 5.5 m (18 ft.), placed on a pedestal formed of fourd marble blocks featuring reliefs. The monument has a total height of 12 m (39.37 ft.), and weighs 78 tons. The statue depicts Anthony of Padua, a 12th- and 13th-century Roman Catholic priest, who is the official patron saint of the city of Lisbon, with the day of his death, 13 June, being celebrated as a municipal holiday, known as Saint Anthony's Day. The monument was designed by architect Carlos Antero Ferreira and sculptor António Duarte, and unveiled in 1972.^[4]

The square also incluces the entrances to the Alvalade station of the Lisbon Metro, located underneath it.^[3]