On Lisbon’s Rua Áurea, Portugal Jewels is reviving a fading retail tradition
On Lisbon’s Golden Street, a family jewellery business is reviving a 200-year-old goldsmith’s workshop and showing how the city’s old commercial heart can adapt to survive.
When a property became available on Lisbon’s Rua Áurea, also known as Golden Street, jeweller siblings Joana and Alexandre Bastos Gomes knew that it was an opportunity that they couldn’t pass up. The historic Baixa district in which it’s located was a fitting place to establish the second outpost of the duo’s business, Portugal Jewels, founded in 2017. “After the 1755 earthquake, this area was rebuilt and its commercial activity reorganised by decree, with goldsmiths concentrated along this avenue,” says Alexandre, whose family has been in the trade for three generations.
For more than 200 years, the premises had been a stamp and seal workshop that once supplied the royal household. Recently, however, the shop had begun to show the marks of time. “The previous owner was getting tired and the shop lacked its original character,” says Joana. “Some older people still came in for stamps but it mostly sold postcards, magnets and suitcases.” The story is a familiar one in Baixa. Once the epicentre of Lisbon’s commercial life, the neighbourhood has been transformed by rising rents and shifting consumer habits. During the past decade, many historic retailers – charming haberdasheries, bookshops and milliners – have shut, replaced by souvenir shops and international franchises. “It’s a difficult balance for the municipality to manage,” says Alexandre. “On the one hand, enterprises need to be economically sustainable. On the other, there must be some form of protection for heritage businesses.”
For Portugal Jewels, the answer has been to preserve the spirit of this historic street through the new shop’s design. The siblings enlisted creative director Ricardo Preto to reimagine the space by evoking Portuguese goldsmithery’s heyday. An illustrator was brought in to create gold lettering on the façade in the style of the original signage. Pieces from antique dealers – desks, china cabinets and even a small oratory – were restored and repurposed as display cabinets for the jewellery (as well as old stamps from the shop’s previous life). The walls were upholstered in floral chita de Alcobaça, a block-printed textile that dates back to the 18th century. “It’s a bit like a grandmother’s home,” says Joana with a smile.
As she shows Monocle around, she holds up a necklace that’s made from filigree gold spheres, a design that’s typical of Viana do Castelo, a town in the country’s north. “Our jewellery is steeped in Portugal’s goldsmithery traditions. It makes sense that our spaces add a new layer to this,” she adds. Portugal Jewels’ first shop, opened in 2025, is a five-minute walk away and follows a similar philosophy. Housed in a former barbershop that was once frequented by the country’s intellectuals, it retains many of the old barber stations and mirrors. “We like to think that we are a good example of how commerce in this part of the city can evolve without destroying the past,” says Alexandre.
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