Marvila (Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐɾˈvilɐ]) is a freguesia (civil parish) and typical quarter of Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal.

Located in eastern Lisbon, Marvila is to the southwest of Parque das Nações north of Beato, and east of Alvalade.

Until the  19th century, there were numerous country houses in this area, surrounded by orchards due to the fertility of the banks of the Tagus.

These properties generally belonged to families from northern Portugal, and supplied the street markets spread throughout the neighborhood and, later, throughout the capital.

In the 20th century, the installation of manufacturing units continued from Rua do Açúcar to Braço de Prata.

Due to the high presence of factories, the Eastern zone of Lisbon was a working-class region in which figures of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), disguised, used to supervise and organise resistance movements, namely in the neighborhoods of Xabregas or Marvila.

Many of these shantytowns eventually merged and became one of the largest shanty settlements in eastern Lisbon and came to be known as the "Bairro Chinês" (Chinese Neighborhood).

The name stemmed from imagery seen in films of the time, depicting junks and floating villages at the mouths of Chinese rivers.

These films also portrayed vast concentrations of wooden houses scattered along narrow and labyrinthine alleyways, densely populated with people.

It is important to remind that, at the same time, in the Lisbon area around 500,000 people (or a third of the total population, of which 44% were illiterate) lived in 115,000 shacks.

[2][3] Marvila is characterised by the large proportion of the population living in public housing, divided amongst 10 main neighborhoods originating in shanty towns.

The neighbourhoods, all characterised by a rich and diverse history, are, in order of construction: The resident population recorded according to Censuses carried over the years is shown in the following table for Marvila.

Religion in Marvila (Census 2021)[8] The parish is predominantly catholic and 77.50% of the population aged 15 or above are followers of a Christian or Jeovah's Witness denomination as of 2021.

[9] The presence of minor religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism (3.54% of the population amongst the three) is probably due to an increasing community of people coming from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Nepal.

The parish also hosts the Estádio Engenheiro Carlos Salema [pt], a football stadium built in 1949 with a capacity for 4,000 people.

The artist Sam the Kid, revered as the king of hip-hop in Portugal, represents Chelas and Zone J; this Marvila neighborhood is adorned with graffiti, another form of street art; and, almost organically, one can find groups of young people listening to hip-hop and making rap music on the streets.