Central square of the city that organized the great expansions of the 19th century. Formerly called Rossio de Massorim, this suburb, located at the mouth of several access roads to the city, became the new urban center of the city with the construction, in 1887, of the Paços do Concelho (formerly located in Praça do Concelho - current D. Duarte Square).

Characterized, from the seventeenth century, by various activities (fair, processions) transferred from the interior of the wall, Rossio began to assert itself as a public space for socialization with its own important functions to the life of the population, a space that is both functional and scenic . The First Republic turned the popular Rossio into Praça da República, where the two names still coexist.