A Complacent Memory? Street Name Changes in Lisbon During the Revolutionary Period

Abstract

This article analyses the changes made to Lisbon’s street names during the revolutionary period in Portugal, spanning April 1974 to November 1975. These changes are framed in the context of memory studies, in order to understand the image of the city which the Toponymy Commission intended to project. The first section provides an overview of street name changes in Lisbon during Portugal’s politically volatile twentieth century. The second sets up the theoretical framework that guides the analysis. The third and central section of this paper focusses on the work of Lisbon’s City Hall regarding street name changes in the first year after the Revolution of April 25, 1974. As I will argue, the Toponymy Commission was by no means complacent with the dictatorship. However, far from supporting the revolutionary course of the PREC, their members were rather engaged in maintaining a balance and avoiding ideological struggles, setting a stable foundation for democratic and consensual politics of memory.