The market sits at the edge of Abrantes's historical centre, where the Rodoviária do Tejo bus workshops used to be. They were in such bad shape that demolition was the recommended option. The lot runs between two streets at different heights: Largo do Tribunal at the bottom, to the west, and Nossa Senhora da Conceição street at the top, to the east.
The lot turned out extraordinarily narrow for the program, and the architects built the design around that. The market is a passage: people walk through it from one street to the other, climbing several levels, with stalls for local traders on the way. The model was the street market, which takes over public space, rather than the traditional closed market hall.
