Ideal Cinema

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 located at the nerve of Lisbon downtown as the commercial and cultural spot 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 has undergone several changes over several decades, passing through the hands of different managers and having different names such as Cinema Ideal, Cine Camões and Cine Paraíso. In 2014, it opens again as Cinema Ideal, with management of Fernando Vidal and an architecture design by José Neves, winning the AICA Prize for its rehabilitation 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 globalized.