An area of farms, olive groves and vineyards in other times, Paço do Lumiar still maintains today some traces of that time. But, like other parts of the city, it could not resist the arrival of "progress" and the automobile. It became a crossing area with two lanes of traffic that left the small and beautiful São Sebastião Chapel isolated, in the middle of the tar and the coming and going of cars coming or going from Avenida Padre Cruz.
Since 2019, the entire Paço do Lumiar has been redeveloped, in an intervention divided into three phases that went beyond the initially designed deadlines. Almost completed, the work leaves Paço with much less tar and a significant increase in the pedestrian area. The road now has only one lane and two directions that meet in the middle, making it impossible to cross traffic. Less pollution, less noise and less congestion are the main benefits of this requalification. There are more benches and seating areas, new gutters where trees should be planted, and two cycling counterflows that allow you to cycle across the Paço from one end to the other.
Paço do Lumiar, with its unique architectural beauty, its farms, its neighborhood life, and two important museums - the National Costume Museum and the National Theater Museum - now becomes a pleasant and mandatory place to visit in Lisbon.
