Lisbon's Letreiro Galeria Glows in a Beautiful Short Film

Documenting Rita Múrias and Paulo Barata's tireless work to preserve a city's graphic heritage.

By Better Letters • 13 Feb 2025

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Warehouse space with scores of signs laid out, including many illuminated neon signs.

Letreiro Galeria houses over 400 salvaged signs from the Portuguese capital. Photo: Adriano Fagundes.

At the 2019 Letterheads meet in Porto, I was approached by a woman holding a book in her hand that she wanted to show me. I started flicking through it, and was instantly blown away by its contents: meticulous research into signs from Lisbon, Portugal, including archival photographs, blueprints, and, in the front section, pictures of their removal from buildings.

Cidade Gráfica: Letreiros e Reclames, Lisboa no Séculos XX, available from Bibliotecas de Lisboa.

That woman was Rita Múrias, and the book, Cidade Gráfica (Graphic City), was a gift for me. (Thank you again Rita!) It was produced to coincide with an exhibition from Letreiro Galeria, a small collective of volunteers led by Rita and her husband Paulo Barata. They work tirelessly to preserve the graphic heritage of the Portuguese capital, which is being eroded as global brands replace local business, and their distinctive signs, on its high streets.

Spreads from the 272 packed pages of Cidade Gráfica.

The book documents the group's research and conservation activities, which extend to salvaging signs threatened with destruction. Over 400 of these are now housed in a storage facility, with about half of these lovingly restored, and, in the case of the many neon signs, plugged in. However, their warehouse is soon to be demolished, and so they are seeking a new space, as documented in this beautiful short film by Irish director Gar O'Rourke.