Benfica, Lisbon

For other uses, see Benfica (disambiguation).

Benfica
Civil parish
300px 149px 149px 149px 149px Clockwise: View from Monsanto Forest Park; Villa Ventura; Portas de Benfica; Retiro do Bom Pastor; Nossa Senhora do Amparo Church.
270x320px
Country	Portugal
Region	Lisboa
Metropolitan area	Lisbon
District	Lisbon
Municipality	Lisbon
Area
• Total	8.03 km2 (3.10 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	36,985
• Density	4,600/km2 (12,000/sq mi)
Time zone	WET (UTC±00:00)
• Summer (DST)	WEST (UTC+01:00)

Benfica (Portuguese pronunciation: [βɐ̃jˈfikɐ]) is a freguesia (civil parish) and district of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Located in northern Lisbon, Benfica is west of São Domingos de Benfica, Carnide, and Campolide, north of Belém, Ajuda, and Alcântara, and directly east of Lisbon's border with Amadora. The population in 2011 was 36,985,

History

File:Vue des jardins de Benfica 36234 (cropped).JPG

View of Benfica in 1785.

In 1959, the parish was split and gave origin to the parish of São Domingos de Benfica.

In this period, Lisbon was experiencing a fast growth, in the 1950s the population of the parish was 17,843 inhabitants, forty years later it exceeded 50,000.

However, in the 1990s, the population of Lisbon started to decline.

With thousands of people leaving to the suburbs and the parish population declined to the present 38,500 inhabitants.

Landmarks

The biggest park of Lisbon, the Monsanto Forest Park, is mostly (until the A5 that serves as a geographic limit with other parishes of Lisbon) located in Benfica.

• Colombo Centre
• Monsanto Forest Park