Lisbon, Oct. 28, 2024 (Lusa) - Zona Franca dos Anjos joins the ever-growing list of cultural and associative spaces in Lisbon that are at risk of closing or have already closed due to the property pressure affecting the city.

Operating for 12 years on the ground floor of a building on Rua de Moçambique, in Anjos, Zona Franca dos Anjos will have to leave the space by 31 December, as the landlady has decided not to renew the lease, the president of the non-profit cultural association, Patrícia Azevedo, told Lusa.

When the new landlady (the daughter of the previous landlady, who died last year) notified them that the lease would not be renewed, the association's leaders tried to see if there was any room for negotiation.

They offered to pay a rent of €1,000, instead of the current €763, for a space that is "quite dilapidated", and undertook to carry out the necessary work.

But the landlady "wasn't interested". According to Patrícia Azevedo, in one of the contacts, the lady told them: "It wasn't a deal for my mum". Meanwhile, the neighbours on the first floor "also received an eviction notice".

After the initial shock and some time to "assimilate the idea", those responsible for the Anjos Free Zone organised a general meeting to decide what to do.

"We're going to resist. It doesn't make sense for us to leave without a fight, to give up. Without an alternative space, we won't leave," said Patrícia Azevedo.

The Zona Franca dos Anjos hosts concerts, film screenings and workshops, most of which are "free or freely donated".

"We're playing a very important social role: we're giving a stage to artists who don't have space in other venues," emphasised Patrícia Azevedo.

Patrícia's work at Zona Franca dos Anjos is unpaid like that of the ten or so other people who run the association. "We're all volunteers," she said.

The rent and upkeep of the space are paid for by the amount charged for the meals they serve in the social canteen, "one of the pillars" of the Zona Franca.

On Wednesdays, the kitchen where the meals are prepared is given over to a solidarity kitchen for homeless people and, whenever necessary, to the Cozinha Migrante dos Anjos, which usually works at Disgraça.

Patrícia Azevedo urges people to visit the association to understand what happens there. "Come and see the space," she said.

The possible closure of the Zona Franca dos Anjos is one more in addition to those that have happened in recent years in Lisbon, or are in the process of happening.

As rents and property prices have risen, residents and associations have been forced to move out of the city or to close down for good. This is what happened, for example, with the Grupo Excursionista e Recreativo Os Amigos do Minho, in Rua do Benformoso, and the Sport Club do Intendente, in Largo do Intendente, about six years ago, and Crew Hassan, in the Anjos area, in 2023.

And that's what could happen with Arroz Estúdios, Casa Independente, Sirigaita, Sociedade Musical Ordem e Progresso (SMOP) and Academia de Amadores de Música.

"Arroz" is a non-profit association that has been "hidden" behind a wall on Avenida Infante Dom Henrique since 2019 and has "a practically daily programme", which includes open-air cinema sessions, concerts, live jams, electronic music events, markets and exhibitions.

Artists' studios are also located there.

Selling the land where "Arroz" is located "is still underway". "For now, we don't have an official date for leaving, but it could happen at any time," Cátia Ciriaco, the manager of the studios and artist residencies at Arroz Estúdios, told Lusa.

Those responsible for the space are "in contact with various town halls in order to find a solution for the association, but without success".

Casa Independente is also trying to find an alternative space. It has been operating for 12 years in a building in Largo do Intendente and must leave by March 2026.

"We're trying to get Lisbon City Council to help us find somewhere to rent, because the market is absolutely impossible," one of the cultural centre's partners, Patrícia Craveiro Lopes, told Lusa.

Until the contract expires, Casa Independente will remain open.

"We're hoping that the council can help us find a space. We're hoping, but we're still looking," she said, regretting that Lisbon is “losing meeting places”.

A stone's throw from Casa da Independente, on Rua dos Anjos, there is another space in danger of closing: Sirigaita, an association that welcomes groups and collective projects.

The association, where everyone is a volunteer, received a letter from the building's owner to vacate the ground floor, which it has occupied since the end of 2018, by February of this year.

"In February we didn't hand over the keys, and we're still paying the rent," Marco Allegra, a member of Sirigaita, told Lusa, noting that they've been trying to find an alternative space, “either in the market or by talking to Lisbon City Council and parish councils”, but “without success”.

"The market is impossible. We've made a few unsuccessful attempts: prices are high, increasingly so - and frankly we don't like the idea that the money we collect from our members will feed the property speculation we're seeing in Lisbon today," said Marco Allegra.

They feel that their work is "highly valued" by local authorities. "But nobody wants to make space available for us - and, more generally, for many organisations at risk."

SMOP also plans to resist in another part of the city, near Rua das Janelas Verdes.

"This space was bought a year or so ago by a group. They want to evict everyone to make a hostel," the president of SMOP, which was founded in 1898 and has been on the first floor of a building in Rua do Conde since 1892-93, even before the collective was formalised, told Lusa in October last year.

In that part of the city, "there used to be several organisations, but today there are only two or three, almost all of which have closed due to this rental policy", Carlos Melo lamented.

SMOP is a non-profit organisation that "works for the community, not only in sport but also in culture".

Lusa contacted SMOP officials this week, and they said that "there is a lawsuit going on in court".

In Chiado, the Academia de Amadores de Música will have to leave the space where it has been operating since 1957 by August 2025 because the rent will increase from €542 to €3,728.

The president of the Academy's board, Pedro Barata, spoke to Lusa in November last year and criticised the public authorities' inoperativeness" in finding an alternative location.

A year later, the academy, which has around 300 students, most of whom are in articulated education, still has no solution in sight.

On the Lisbon City Council's Information and Services pages, in the City Directory area, you can read about the Academia de Amadores de Música: "It is part of the network of private and co-operative schools, and offers artistic training at the highest level, preparing young people to continue their musical studies at university level."

JRS/ADB // ADB.

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