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Standing on the Terreiro do Paço, the Gateway to Lisbon, whereas wind gusts round you and the waters of the Tagus chop and spew like Desk Bay whereas the Cape Physician is having one in all his blustery tantrums, you attempt to think about the scene right here when one in all historical past’s most notable earthquakes struck Lisboa.
This was 1755, greater than 200 years after the top of the nation’s two intervals of exploration to overcome international lands from Brazil and the Açores (the Portuguese spelling) to Cape Verde, Goa and Macau, Angola and Mozambique.
Hordes of the town’s denizens had run in direction of the comforting banks of the river they name Tejo (Tagus in English) to seek out reduction. They huddled there, shivering, shaking and fearful, imagining or hoping that the worst was over.
Then the waters receded, mysteriously. Forty minutes later, the ocean rushed again into the river with vengeful power to comb lots of them away, whereas others raced their horses in direction of greater floor and security.
However nature was not but performed along with her work. As soon as the waters had receded, and with tremors nonetheless unsettling the remaining buildings, candles lit in houses everywhere in the metropolis to mark All Saints Day toppled over. Quickly, hearth roared by the town to asphyxiate lots of these residents who had by some means survived.
Was this vengeance? It’s recorded that some Lisboetas of the time believed that the nation was being punished for ills that they had dedicated in international territories. The occasion was actually extra impactful than its brutal bodily devastation.
It’s the earthquake that gave delivery to modern-day seismology.
Not for nothing is King Dom José I, who survived the ’quake, mounted on horseback within the statue of him that dominates the sq. immediately. Though nothing actually dominates this extraordinary house; it’s the house itself, the size and foreverness of it, that dictates your response to it. It appears to have an vitality of its personal as you forge throughout it a technique or one other.
On the flanks are magnificent palatial buildings just lately repainted within the cheerful ochre of their origins, however your general impression is of commandment. The Terreiro do Paço appears to have energy over you; it would have you ever really feel its presence and impose its historical past upon you. You’re taken out of your current and deposited in its previous, till you wander again by the arch of the Arco da Rua Augusta once more and traipse again to your automobile, having been misplaced in an historic world.
The arch was erected to commemmorate those that rebuilt the town after the earthquake, not least the prime minister, Marquês de Pombal, who was tasked by the king to supervise the reconstruction. Pombal is widely known all through the fashionable metropolis immediately, in roads, buildings and even a resort.
However let’s flip again once more to the Terreiro do Paço and stroll to the water’s edge. A pair of seagulls swoop and sweep above you in a macho airborne struggle, utilizing their wingtips to smack the opposite away. As you method the water, at first you presume it to be the ocean. It’s that broad. You’re dealing with a pair of similar columns on that are perched seagulls standing sentinel of their riverside area. The pillars are the Cais das Colunas and have borne witness to nice individuals and larger ships who’ve visited Lisbon and departed from it.
I felt as if I used to be standing on the Gateway to Historical past.
Terreiro do Paço with its 1775 statue of King Dom José I, who briefed prime minister Marquês de Pombal to rebuild Lisbon after the horrible earthquake of that 12 months. Terreiro do Paço is without doubt one of the largest squares in Europe and was the positioning of the palaces of the nation’s kings. (Photograph: Tony Jackman)
The discoverers left from right here to seek out faraway territories to assert for Portugal. The wind, the salt and the historical past conspire to have you ever think about you have been there when the modest caravels took to the wild waters on an insane quest to overcome lands for the crown. A insanity that spawned an empire as soon as admired and now picked aside as historical past is inspected for abuse of energy.
Regardless of any misgivings the fashionable customer could have, with the modified perspective that subsequent historical past has given us, you can not however be left with an impression of respect for the braveness and daring of the traditional Portuguese, at the same time as questions hover within the wuthering air about distant individuals as soon as enslaved and the colonial hangover now being explored by their descendants.
The dual pillars of the Cais das Colunas, modelled after the pillars of Solomon’s Temple, have noticed historical past. And sure, that’s a river, not sea. (Photograph: Tony Jackman)
To the appropriate as you flip to face Lisbon, your eyes take within the 25 de Abril suspension bridge and your thoughts does a flip. It appears to be like precisely just like the famed Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and that’s as a result of it’s, with some moderations, although is 1.5 metres longer. The Ponte 25 de Abril (initially the Salazar Bridge) is 2,277 m lengthy and has two tiers. Beneath the highest highway deck is one other which is crossed by greater than 150 trains a day, ferrying residents between house and work.
Earlier than the week was out, I’d be crossing that bridge.
The Monument of the Discoverers and a citadel within the sea
The day earlier than, all of this might solely be imagined. As a result of our eyes, our minds, and finally our palates, have been swallowed up by Belém.
The day couldn’t have been hotter or extra humid. We walked and walked and sweated and sweated. Then we queued, however fortunately not for lengthy, to be among the many tens of millions on this planet who’ve come to Belém for a pastel de nata. However actually, only one? No. You come to Belém for pastéis de nata. That’s, two or extra.
However first, the Torre de Belém. Or, as an entranced good friend again house exclaimed once I confirmed him {a photograph} of it, “A citadel within the sea!” The Torre, or Belém Tower, also called the Tower of Saint Vincent, dates to the sixteenth century and, just like the pillars of the Cais das Colunas additional upstream and the breathtaking Terreiro do Paço, was as soon as a spot of embarkation for the Portuguese explorers, or discoverers as they’re usually referred to as in Portugal; a “ceremonial gateway” because it has been referred to as.
There’s at all times a protracted queue to go in, and as our good friend and information informed us, like several citadel inside it’s simply partitions and stone, so we have been joyful to accept the beautiful exterior facet, set in opposition to a scorching azure sky. Yachts and ferries glid gracefully right here and there, close to and much throughout the Tagus. Distributors offered candy Brazilian pineapples referred to as abacaxi from an ornate meals truck. Tuk-tuk taxis of bizarre size, like tuk-tuk stretch limos, deposited vacationers and picked up others.
Abacaxi are the deliciously candy and gentle Brazilian pineapples that folks in southern Portugal adore. This cart was on the riverside promenade in Belém. (Photograph: Tony Jackman)
We turned and walked, previous quays the place non-public craft bobbed at their moorings, on and on previous the Jerónimos Monastery till the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument of the Discoverers) got here into view and took my breath away. Inaugurated in 1960, it commemorates the Age of Discoveries in Portugal. It’s enormous and delightful, a masterpiece with satisfaction embedded in its very essence. I can not consider a extra spectacular monument.
Again-to-back pictures of the Padrão dos Descobrimentos at close by Belém, displaying views from both aspect. The monument is very large, far larger than you would think about with out seeing it up shut, and has a viewing deck reached from inside. (Images and collage: Tony Jackman)
The monument commemorates the five hundredth anniversary of the dying of Henry the Navigator, who found the Azores (Açores in Portugal), Madeira and Cape Verde. On the starboard aspect of the prow of the caravel that the grand sculpture represents, Prince Henry the Navigator leads the best way forward of a pack of well-known explorers; with extra mirroring them on the port aspect.
It’s too straightforward to judge a rustic, and one which previously colonised and enslaved others, from an enlightened fashionable perspective. While you stand at locations just like the Terreiro do Paço and the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, there appears to be a presumptuousness about doing so. Who’re we to say that the clever outdated Portugal of the twenty first century is not any completely different from the wide-eyed nation of lots of of years in the past determined to overcome?
Many may have their very own ideas, undoubtedly, however I do surprise if, standing there as I did, they’d not discover pause for thought.
Had nature not already wrought her vengeance on the town in that 1755 earthquake?
Because it occurs, there are counterpoints to those celebrations of previous glories, corresponding to a grim museum exploring the slave commerce, and an impending new monument, depicting rows of sugarcane painted black, which is slated to be located close to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos.
Stability is to be delivered to the historical past on show.
Pastéis de nata, travesseiros and chamuças
Your welcome to Pastéis de Belém begins on the pavement. (Photograph: Tony Jackman)
To assuage historical past and return to the current, we joined the queue at Pastéis de Belém, not the takeaway queue at one finish, or the pre-order queue on the different, however the queue within the center to take a seat down and eat our pastéis de nata.
A chef turns over a few of the infinite manufacturing of pastéis de nata that appears to by no means finish. (Photograph: Tony Jackman)
However they don’t solely promote pastéis de nata at Pastéis de Belém. We additionally ate a nutty travesseiro, which is a speciality of Sintra, a pillowy concoction with a creamy almond filling. Glass cupboards close to one entrance displayed slices of mil-folhas (puff pastry with fondant icing), tosta de laranja (moist orange rolls), and babá cupcakes.
Pastéis de nata on the cafe the place they originated close to the Tagus River in Belém, Lisbon. One is a pastel, two or extra are pastéis. (Images and collage: Tony Jackman)
I ate different pastéis de nata elsewhere, however none got here near this unique with its sweetly blackened prime. There are savouries too, some with presunto (Iberian ham), others with queijo (cheese) of 1 selection or one other. Treats offered right here and everywhere in the area embody pastéis de bacalhau (codfish fritters), rissóls (on this case, a deep-fried prawn turnover), and chamuças (samoosas).
There’s greater than pastéis de nata at Pastéis de Belém. Scrumptious confections embody bolo de arroz (rice flour truffles), apple tarts and bola de berlim (doughnut pastries). (Images and collage: Tony Jackman)
It’s that crunchy, spicy delight that everybody claims as their very own. Regardless that its origins are in Southeast Asia, to a Capetonian a samoosa (and we insist on including an “o”) is as a lot part of the town’s soul as Desk Mountain itself. However in Portugal it’s a chamuça, a reputation that makes it sound as native as a fried sardine.
Azulejo tilework in Pastéis de Belém displaying the realm in 1669. One other azulejo celebrates the 12 months the home was constructed. The ‘fila’ signal tells you to queue right here, although there are two different queues. The border reveals the signature tile of the café. (Images and collage: Tony Jackman)
The blue and white tiles you see throughout Portugal, on the partitions of homes, on total triple-storey condominium blocks, even on avenue indicators, are everywhere in the exterior and inside of this world-famous store. Scenes of the neighbourhood in historic instances. The legend “Casa fundada em 1837” explains the constructing’s classic in tiles. One other assemblage in blue and gold tiles frames a passage by Luís Vaz de Camões, from his epic poem “O Lusíadas”, on the departure of Vasco da Gama: We thus depart from the holy temple…
Camões is in all places right here, like pastéis de nata and numerous beautiful tiles. Fernando Pessoa, the poet and thinker, is in all places too. I even had my {photograph} taken with him in Lisbon.
And immediately, the dots are related
Simply three of the magnificent buildings on Avenida da Liberdade in central Lisbon. Lovely tiled façades abound. (Images and collage: Tony Jackman)
Earlier than that heart-stopping second once I first walked onto the Terreiro do Paço, we had been on Avenue Liberdade, a grand boulevard that runs by Lisbon. At Banana Cafe, one of many many quiosques (kiosks, how clunky it spells in English) that dot the tree-lined central island that runs the size of the avenue, I ordered a lemonade. It turned out to be a glass of faucet water with a little bit of lemon juice squeezed into it. However it mattered not, as my actual nourishment got here from admiring and photographing constructing after constructing awash with tiles of many hues and patterns.
Replicas of Mannequin T Ford motorcars and different classic fashions are throughout Lisbon. (Photograph: Tony Jackman)
We met up with our host who drove us expertly to Chiado, the heartbeat of the town’s purchasing and theatre life. Parking in a basement, we walked up a flight of stairs and thru a door to seek out ourselves proper on the Praça Luís de Camões with its central statue of the poet. Electrical tuk tuks tuk-tukked by. Mannequin T Ford replicas of many colors beamed at us as they deposited their clients on the pavement to swish into shops and cafés.
The Praça Luís de Camões with its central statue of the poet. (Photograph: Tony Jackman)
We discovered a candle retailer that mates had been telling us about. A candle lover’s Aladdin’s Cave. Emerald greens, cobalt blues, candles formed into pears and mangoes. My hopes of seeing extra and shopping for some have been thwarted when the store assistant defined that we weren’t allowed to transcend the entrance counter to the magnificent glass cupboards we might see behind her. How are you going to select in the event you can’t discover? Can’t have each Tony, Dick and Harry stepping into there, evidently. I do perceive although: I had not seen a no-photography signal and had began to {photograph} candles, till she stopped me. She thought I used to be simply one of many many annoying vacationers who solely wish to {photograph} all the pieces.
At Restaurante Benard in Chiado, you possibly can’t take pictures both. Even of the menu (my manner of recording the place I’ve been and what I’ve eaten). Even once I defined that I write about meals for a dwelling. No.
I ate a pastel de bacalhau (codfish parcel) and a shrimp rissol. I used to be nibbling a pastel de nata, not an excellent one, when a really good octogenarian couple sat down at a desk close to us. He was in an old style go well with, white shirt and tie. Very Lisbon Previous Boys’ Membership. Her hair was neatly permed, pearls at her neck and ears. Wore a tidy two-piece go well with. They’d stepped proper out of the Seventies. They spoke quietly to 1 one other and seemed neither left nor proper. They have been typical, our host informed us, of old-school Lisbon society. It was a form of tiny perception, a mysterious little window, onto a complete world of one other Lisbon, one we will solely surprise about.
The dots have been shortly related. Folks like these stalwarts of the outdated metropolis should have been coming to Restaurante Benard all their lives. They’d have identified these streets and these cafés lengthy earlier than the vacationers got here within the large numbers they’re now and swished round photographing all the pieces in sight, having their image taken with the beloved poet Fernando Pessoa (I did, mea culpa), filling the Terreiro do Paço and Pastéis de Belém with their jabbering in each tongue, their presumption in regards to the metropolis’s outdated politics, and their eyes on stalks.
And right here, now, who’re all these individuals?
Coda
I learnt many phrases in these few brief days in Lisbon and Cascais, in Évora and Sintra. However the phrase I treasure most is saudade. A longing from the depths of the soul. The form of longing I’ve to return, in order that I can know Lisbon in addition to that genteel outdated couple who’re most likely sitting in that café proper now, oblivious of us all. DM
Discover Half 2 of this trilogy right here subsequent week, on Évora, and the third per week later, centred on Cascais.
Tony Jackman is Galliova Meals Author 2023, collectively with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido.
Comply with Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.
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