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Even today, Baixa is known by its commercial aspect, where we can find small shops, some of them century-old ones, passed on from generation to generation. There are also shops that sell specific articles which can be hard to find in large commercial surfaces, but in each establishment, a common note: a personalised service, where the most faithful customers are treated by name, and everyone is always greeted with a smile. It is an open-air shopping centre with a privileged location where the shops are side by side with some of the city’s most emblematic sites and monuments.
Local Commerce:
Downtown is the shopping area par excellence, the result of a tradition that began long ago. Since medieval times, the lower part of the city was the place of choice for merchants, who, taking advantage of the proximity to the river, settled there to trade. At the end of the 16th century, the evolution was so notorious that, in terms of economic power, the Baixa [downtown] already exceeded the city’s Alta [uptown] becoming the heartland of the city.
