What to see, shop and eat at the Cidadela de Cascais Art District

It's the hotel that revolutionised the former Fortress of Nossa Senhora da Luz, a national heritage site. With 108 rooms and 18 luxury suites, almost all with sea views, it is a very central accommodation, perfect for those who want to discover the town of Cascais on foot. It's just a few minutes' walk from the beach, the Museum Quarter, Cascais Marina and Marechal Carmona Park. It has a spa, gym and swimming pool.

Catarina Carreiras is in charge of operations. She opened This Must Be The Place in 2020. The showroom is at the front. At the back is her studio, where she works on branding and communication projects with her small team. She uses silk-screen, sculpture, textiles and wood, all alternatives to mainstream materials with which millennials have filled their homes. All with a good measure of colour.

A used bookshop, arranged in wine boxes, where the rooms don't follow conventional categories. Déjà Lu is the quirkiest bookshop in the area - and it still has a busy schedule. There are workshops, talks and reading sessions. Next door, there's a restaurant that's there for the occasion. The icing on the cake is the cause: sales go in favour of the Trisomy 21 Association.

Dedicated to Portuguese petiscos, Taberna da Praça is the Cidadela’s go-to restaurant. With a sun-drenched terrace perfect for lingering, the menu features treats such as game alheira croquettes, tuna pica-pau with capers, scrambled eggs with farinheira and tomato, mushrooms Bulhão Pato-style and peixinhos da horta, among many other small plates. If you’re after something more substantial, try the octopus rice with prawns, monkfish stew with mussels, duck rice cooked their way, pork in vinha d’alhos or one of the various steaks served with different sauces.

Desvio Ceramics opened its doors in Bairro do Rosário, Cascais, in October 2024, founded by Sofia Santo – who, after a decade working in social services, decided to take a happy detour in her professional life and devote herself entirely to ceramics. In July 2025, the brand unveiled its second space in the Cidadela’s Art District, a studio that also hosts workshops focused on wheel-thrown pottery.

Allarts Gallery has been selling mainly Portuguese pieces there for 11 years. There's no shortage of Vista Alegre and Bordallo Pinheiro classics, Topázio and Pé de Mar jewellery, as well as sunglasses, design and decorative objects and original paintings, particularly naïf paintings. It's also worth taking a look at Antiflop's silk scarves, which adapt renowned works by Portuguese artists.

Once a fishing village, Cascais’s fate changed in 1870 when King Luís decided to turn Cascais Citadel into his summer residence. And so it remained until the monarchy was overthrown in 1910. It went on to become the official and summer residence of several of Portugal’s presidents. After many years of neglect, in 2004 the Museum of the Presidency of the Republic began work restoring the citadel, which today receives guests of the Presidency and which has rooms set up for this purpose. You can visit some of the palace’s restored rooms, including the noble salon, the Arab room and the incredible enclosed balcony with its wonderful views over the bay.

It's the latest addition to the Cidadela Art District. Since September 2023, the artist Nélio Saltão, a self-taught artist who for 40 years combined his artistic passion with the various jobs he held in the casinos of Estoril and Lisbon, has had his own space in Cascais. There he exhibits and sells his colourful paintings, in which he explores abstract expressionism.

The Art District of Cascais is also home to Mariana A. Mateus' gallery, shop and workshop space, where she sells contemporary jewellery in different styles - whether earrings, rings or necklaces.

It is the gallery and studio dedicated to the art of Gizela N and the designer jewellery of Cláudia Afonso, two creatives who have come together in a single space that has been open to the public since 2022.