Lisbon's 'torture' house project sparks row

Opponents say the building should be turned in a museum

By Alison Roberts BBC Lisbon correspondent

The former headquarters of Portugal's once notorious secret police, the PIDE, which for years rang with the screams of prisoners under torture, is to be transformed into a luxury condominium.

It's impossible to walk past the place without shivering

Lisbon resident

A proposal has been lodged with Lisbon council for the redevelopment of the four-storey building in the city's fashionable Chiado district, which has stood empty since the PIDE was disbanded after the 1974 Revolution.

If the plan goes ahead, rooms that under the Salazar dictatorship saw the brutal interrogation of political prisoners - many of whom died there - will be occupied by well-heeled city dwellers.

It's now important to bring in more people, to give life to the area

Alvaro Antonio Vasconcelos, parish council chairman

The proposal has triggered outrage among veteran opponents of fascism.

Some of them say the building should instead be turned into a museum honouring the struggle against dictatorship and those who suffered there.

'Absolutely unacceptable'

What angers them most is the suggestion that the developer has no plans to identify the building nor commemorate those held there, and that the council has failed to insist on this.

The plaque in memory of four men shot by the PIDE

Veteran Communist Party leader Alvaro Cunhal, who spent years in prison under the dictatorship, and former army captain Vasco Lourenco, who took part in the 1974 military coup that brought it down, have both described the situation as "absolutely unacceptable".

At present, the building's facade bears a plaque in memory of four men shot dead by PIDE officers holed up in the building on 25 August 1974, when the dictatorship fell and unarmed crowds massed outside.

Others were injured in the shootings, which constituted the only major instance of bloodletting in the so-called Carnation Revolution, because civilians crammed flowers in the barrels of the soldiers' guns.

"It's impossible to walk past the place without shivering," said Maria Delgado, who works nearby of the neglected PIDE building.

"I wouldn't want to live there."

Posh area

Much of the Chiado - which in the 19th century established itself as the city's intellectual and artistic centre - was devastated by a fire in 1988.

Dictator Salazar ruled Portugal for over 40 years

It took a decade for it to recover, with redevelopment overseen by internationally renowned Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza Viera.

Now, with the snazzy Armazens do Chiado - once a flagship department store, now a bustling shopping centre - as its anchor, it is once more one of Lisbon's most popular areas for shops and cafes and potentially an ideal place for the well-heeled to live.

The area's property boom has taken a while to spread to more out-of-the-way streets such as Rua Antonio Maria Cardoso, where the former PIDE headquarters stands.

But with easy access to the city centre and fine views of the Tagus river, they are evidently seen as too tempting a business proposition to ignore.

The developer in question has dismissed the controversy over the building's past as "history" and stressed the need to move on.

Some locals agree, pleased to see the area finally being developed.

Parish council chairman Alvaro Antonio Vasconcelos recently handed a list of eight derelict 18th and 19th century buildings to city officials in the hope of saving them.

He wants flats in the PIDE building to be earmarked for young people, to help revitalise a 10 hectare parish bursting with theatres and other attractions, but with just 369 residents.

"We have been negotiating with the council to get a percentage of the homes to be built in the former PIDE headquarters onto the market at prices affordable to young people," he said.

"While the opening of the Armazens do Chiado has done a lot to boost the area, it's now important to bring in more people, to give life to the area."

The PIDE building is across the way from an even larger development - Terracos de Braganca - on a site owned by the Duke de Braganca, the pretender to the Portuguese throne best known for appearing in gossip magazines.