Cinema Ideal

Opened in 1904 under the name Salão Ideal, this cinema was the idea of the photographer João Freire and his associate Nuno de Almada, who travelled to Paris specifically to purchase the equipment necessary for film projection and to open the first cinema theatre in Portugal. It is strategically located at the nerve centre of Lisbon commercial and cultural life of the 19th and 20th centuries – in Rua do Loreto, next to Largo de Camões, i.e. between the Chiado, Bairro Alto and Santa Catarina districts. It was not until 1949, now operating under the name Cinema Ideal, that it was transformed from the “shed” it was at the beginning of the century to a cinema theatre similar to many others across Europe, which the architect João Simões had studied for his design. Closed in 1976, it reopened in 1978 after refurbishing work as Cine Camões; and as the Cine Paraíso in the 1990s. It was finally reopened in 2014 under the management of Fernando Vidal as the Cinema Ideal, a new space dedicated to cinema and cultural and urban entertainment. Designed by José Neves, the Cinema Ideal received the AICA Prize for its remodelling project and also for the alternative cultural programme it proposes for a historic urban centre and a cultural environment that is becoming more and more globalised.