Alfama: Ghost Streets of Old Lisbon | Haunted Alleys, Plague Shadows, and Earthquake Spirits

0:00 Speaker 1: Dear listener. Tonight we return to Alfama, the oldest surviving

0:04 Speaker 1: quarter of Lisbon, where the streets twist like old rope,

0:07 Speaker 1: staircases rise without apology and history sits so close to

0:11 Speaker 1: the surface it can feel as though someone else is

0:14 Speaker 1: walking beside you. Alfama is often described as charming, romantic, atmospheric,

0:21 Speaker 1: and beautiful. Those are all true. It is also one

0:25 Speaker 1: of those neighborhoods where the past seems unwilling to behave

0:29 Speaker 1: like the past. This is the deeper story of Alphama

0:32 Speaker 1: Ghost Streets of Old Lisbon, with more specific legends, witness accounts,

0:38 Speaker 1: and true events that helped create one of Europe's most

0:40 Speaker 1: quietly haunted districts. To understand the strange feeling of Alfama

0:46 Speaker 1: begin with the simple fact that it survived what destroyed

0:49 Speaker 1: much of the rest of Lisbon on November first, seventeen

0:54 Speaker 1: fifty five. The seventeen fifty five Lisbon earthquake, struck on

0:58 Speaker 1: the Catholic Feast of All Saints Day. Churches were full,

1:02 Speaker 1: candles burned everywhere. The earthquake was followed by tsunami waves

1:07 Speaker 1: and city wide fires that raged for days. Tens of

1:11 Speaker 1: thousands likely died. Much of downtown Lisbon was shattered or burned. Alfama,

1:17 Speaker 1: built on firmer slopes and higher ground, suffered damage but

1:21 Speaker 1: remained standing in ways other districts did not. That meant

1:25 Speaker 1: survivors fled uphill into its lanes. Contemporary letters and chronicles

1:30 Speaker 1: described crowds moving toward higher areas carrying wounded relatives, religious statues, blankets,

1:38 Speaker 1: and children. One Jesuit account speaks of streets jammed with

1:42 Speaker 1: people praying aloud, screaming, or wandering in shock. Local tradition

1:47 Speaker 1: later claimed that for weeks after the disaster, residents in

1:51 Speaker 1: Alfama heard voices at night asking for ruin names or

1:54 Speaker 1: calling family members who were already dead below in the

1:57 Speaker 1: ruined city. One of the most repeated Alfama stories centers

2:02 Speaker 1: on a woman known in folklore as Avuva Dajanella, the

2:06 Speaker 1: widow at the Window. Versions differ, but the tale usually

2:11 Speaker 1: places her in the late eighteenth century. After the earthquake.

2:15 Speaker 1: Her husband, a dock worker or sailor, depending on who

2:18 Speaker 1: tells it, disappeared during the chaos near the waterfront. She

2:22 Speaker 1: was said to appear nightly at an upper window facing

2:26 Speaker 1: the river, candle in hand, waiting for him to return.

2:30 Speaker 1: After her death, neighbors claimed a small light still appeared

2:34 Speaker 1: at that same window on storm nights. Even in the

2:38 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, some locals reportedly crossed themselves when passing the

2:42 Speaker 1: building after dark. Was there truly a ghost impossible to prove.

2:48 Speaker 1: Was there truly a widow who waited years in a

2:51 Speaker 1: port city absolutely? Another recurring legend concerns the silent procession

2:57 Speaker 1: of so Miguel near Church of Seal Miguel. Residents long

3:01 Speaker 1: told of hearing footsteps and murmured prayers in narrow streets

3:05 Speaker 1: during certain nights of November, especially around anniversaries linked to

3:09 Speaker 1: plague years or All Souls observances. Witnesses described turning corners

3:14 Speaker 1: expecting a religious procession and finding no one there. Some

3:18 Speaker 1: modern skeptics note that Alfama's acoustics can carry sound from

3:22 Speaker 1: distant streets in uncanny ways. Believers answer that sound does

3:27 Speaker 1: not usually carry incense. Alfama's plague stories are rooted in

3:31 Speaker 1: real suffering. Lisbon endured repeated epidemics in the medieval and

3:36 Speaker 1: early modern periods. Port districts were especially vulnerable because ships

3:40 Speaker 1: brought people, rats, fleas, contaminated goods, and crowding During severe outbreaks,

3:47 Speaker 1: houses were isolated and bodies removed quickly. In older accounts,

3:52 Speaker 1: bells rung for the dead became so frequent that people

3:56 Speaker 1: stopped counting. From this emerged the tale of the Knaki doors.

4:01 Speaker 1: In several Alfama lanes, families claimed that three knocks after

4:05 Speaker 1: midnight were an omen of death, echoing the arrival of

4:08 Speaker 1: plague officials or death collectors in earlier centuries. Even in

4:13 Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds, some residents reportedly refused to answer late

4:17 Speaker 1: knocks unless the caller spoke first. Then there are the

4:22 Speaker 1: sailor ghosts. Lisbon was once the departure point for voyages

4:27 Speaker 1: to Africa, Brazil, India and beyond. Many men left and

4:32 Speaker 1: never returned, lost to storms, war, disease, shipwreck, or simple disappearance.

4:38 Speaker 1: In Alfama, wives and mothers often lived close enough to

4:42 Speaker 1: hear harbor bells and watch the Tagus River. One famous

4:46 Speaker 1: story attached to Ruados Remedios tells of a young woman

4:50 Speaker 1: engaged to a sailor in the early eighteen hundreds. He

4:53 Speaker 1: departed for Brazil and was never heard from again. She

4:57 Speaker 1: supposedly continued dressing for his return every Sunday and standing

5:01 Speaker 1: near the lane's end to watch the river after her death.

5:05 Speaker 1: Later residents claimed to see a woman in pale clothing

5:08 Speaker 1: at dawn, then watch her vanish when approached. Whether ghost

5:13 Speaker 1: or embellished memory, it reflects a very real Lisbon truth.

5:17 Speaker 1: The sea created as much mourning as wealth. Alfama's buildings

5:21 Speaker 1: also produce modern experiences that feed old legends. Many apartments

5:27 Speaker 1: are centuries old, with uneven floors, interior courtyards, shared walls,

5:32 Speaker 1: and plumbing that sounds emotionally invested. Residents have reported footsteps

5:37 Speaker 1: overhead in buildings where upper floors were empty, doors closing

5:42 Speaker 1: in stairwells with no wind, and voices seeming to come

5:45 Speaker 1: through walls from no clear source. One often repeated modern

5:50 Speaker 1: account came from a guesthouse owner near Largo do Cha

5:53 Speaker 1: Fariz de Dentro, who said visitors repeatedly asked who had

5:57 Speaker 1: been walking upstairs late at night, despite there being no

6:00 Speaker 1: occupied room above them. Another resident claimed she heard furniture

6:05 Speaker 1: scraping every Tuesday evening for months, only to learn the

6:08 Speaker 1: top apartment had been vacant for years during renovation delays.

6:13 Speaker 1: Now old buildings settle pipes, shift cats exist, and humans

6:19 Speaker 1: are suggestible, but repeated stories matter because they show how

6:23 Speaker 1: places generate shared experience. Then there is Fato, whose emotional

6:28 Speaker 1: roots are intertwined with districts like Alfama. Fato songs dwell

6:33 Speaker 1: on longing, fate, absence, jealousy, impossible love, sailors gone, and

6:40 Speaker 1: sorrow that has learned to sing. Late at night. Hearing

6:44 Speaker 1: a voice carry through stone lanes can feel less like

6:46 Speaker 1: performance and more like haunting. Visitors often report one especially

6:51 Speaker 1: eerie sensation in Alfama, being certain someone is behind them

6:55 Speaker 1: on the stairs. This has practical causes. The district's steep lane,

7:00 Speaker 1: echo footsteps, strangely, sounds bounce from walls, and people above

7:05 Speaker 1: or below may seem level with you. Yet the feeling

7:08 Speaker 1: is so common that guides sometimes joke al Fama gives

7:11 Speaker 1: everyone one complimentary ghost. Perhaps the most haunting truth is this,

7:17 Speaker 1: Alfama's legends come from ordinary people, not kings or famous murderers,

7:22 Speaker 1: but widows, laborers, plague, dead sailors, mothers, priests, children, and

7:30 Speaker 1: refugees from disaster. These are not glamorous ghosts. They are

7:34 Speaker 1: neighborhood ghosts. That may be why they feel believable and now,

7:38 Speaker 1: dear listener, a quick word from tonight's sponsor.

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8:00 Speaker 1: So the next time someone says hauntings only belong in castles,

8:05 Speaker 1: remember Alfama, where ghosts knock softly, wait by windows, sing

8:10 Speaker 1: through alleyways, and still know the road down to the river.

8:14 Speaker 1: Until next time.

8:15 Speaker 3: Stay curious, had had them, had boded, had

9:34 Speaker 2: Happ