The Lisbon World Exposition took place between 22 May and 30 September, 1998 and is now part and parcel of the country’s patrimony. Thanks to that event, the eastern sector of Portugal’s capital city, formerly an area that was basically abandoned and undergoing a process of continuous degradation, was fully revamped and renovated.

Until the end of the nineteenth century, the area which today features Lisbon’s Parque das Nações development was a rural area spreading along the Tagus River. Following its quick industrialisation during the first half of the twentieth century, it became Lisbon’s area of choice for the country’s first oil refinery.

The hydroplanes which used to fly between the United States and Europe – the old transatlantic China Clippers from Pan American Airways – stopped at the then brand new Doca dos Olivais after landing on the Tagus River (on an area of the estuary called the Palha Sea).

During the 1960s, the area started to progressively deteriorate, becoming a derelict field contaminated with industrial waste from discontinued industrial activities.

A visitor to the site was faced with a vision of ruined buildings, tons of piled steel and twisted ironworks, decrepit fuel reservoirs and an old abattoir, hundreds upon hundreds of cargo containers piled atop each other, and a veritable graveyard of old military equipment, including scores of derelict military vehicles.