The Neon Signs

It was a Frenchman, Georges Claude, who first presented neon glass lighting in 1910, but the invention really caught on in the USA. It was the way of attracting attention that most perfectly suited American society of the day – reflecting the glamour and brilliance of colours and visual sensations one could also find in the movies of the time. In Lisbon, the first applications for licences to use these “rare gas tubes” date from 1938. The place in Lisbon that was to be most expressively marked by neon advertising the Praça Dom Pedro IV square, commonly known as Rossio.