Free Tour of Lisbon, More Exploring and More Food!!

Monday October 16 was hot and humid with a high of 24C. The weather in Lisbon has been warmer than it usually is this time of year. After breakfast, we walked to the meeting spot for the Sandemans Free Tour of Lisbon. As it was only about five minutes away, we stopped for a quick coffee at the bar of the Café A Brasileira which had a plaque outside noting its centenary of 2005. It is a beautiful old café. Our usual order of one espresso and two macchiatos came to 2.15 euros.

Inside the Café

Alain and Grace at the bar

Our meeting point was the statue of Luis de Camoes. Our guide was Rita, who was excellent. Full of enthusiasm for Lisbon and very knowledgeable about the sights we were seeing.

Meeting point for Sandeman's Free Tour of Lisbon

A close up

Camoes (1524-1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His epic work Os Lusiadas (The Lusiads) had a great influence, that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camoes."

A few steps away was a statue of another poet - Antonio Ribeiro Chiado (1520-1591) who was a satirical poet of the 16th century. He was known as Chiado for having lived many years in the Chiado area of Lisbon in the street where the statue was erected.

Our guide -Rita

Rita spoke about the statue of Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) which sits at a table in front of the Café A Brasileira. Pessoa was a prolific writer, not only under his own name, for he dreamed up approximately 75 others. He did not call them pseudonyms because he felt that didn't capture their true independent intellectual life and instead called them heteronyms. Some of them held unpopular views. Quite a character!

My photo of the statue of Pessoa from Sunday night

Across the square was the Bertrand bookstore that had a Guinness World Record plaque identifying it as the oldest operating bookshop in the world!! It was established in 1732 and is still very active as a bookstore and a café. Rita told us about the ceramic tiles (called azulejos) that adorn many buildings. Azulejos comes from the Arabic word meaning "polished stone"and date to the 13th century when the Moors invaded Spain and Portugal. For a time tiles were forbidden in Portugal by the Christian kings. When King Manuel I (1469-1521) visited Seville and saw the beautiful tiles in that city, they were allowed to be used again. The tiles are both decorative and act as insulation on the houses. The earlier Moorish tiles were decorative, and the later tiles placed by the Christians often depicted historical scenes or told stories.

Detail of tile

The Oldest Bookstore in the World founded in 1722

We walked to a church that now houses the Carmo Archaeological Museum. It has an open part of the building and is a reminder of the devastating 1755 earthquake. Rita described how the earthquake destroyed most of Lisbon, killing thousands of people. The King decided wisely to totally rebuild the city using a system of wooden structures to make buildings earthquake proof. A tsunami followed the earthquake and for years there were aftershocks. It was an event that changed the face of Europe and affected other countries. The only major area of Lisbon that survived is the Alfama, the former red-light district.

View of the Church with the open top

We went to the Santa Justa Elevator which connects the lower streets of the Baixa with the higher Largo do Carmo (Carmo Square). It was completed in 1902.

The views are spectacular from the top of the Santa Justa Elevator.

Looking down on statue of Peter IV (1798-1834)

View of the Castle

View of the Cathedral

Alain in the elevator

We next walked down to the square with the statue of Peter IV. Peter was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil and later he reigned briefly over Portugal.

We then went to see two Memorials to the massacre of the Jews which took place in April 1506. The Memorial is located near the Church where the first Jews were murdered. In 1497, Jews were forced to either convert to Roman Catholicism or leave Portugal. The converts were known as "New Christians." Dominican friars promised absolution for sins committed over the previous 100 days to those who killed the "heretics". Jews became the scapegoats for the Black Plague and that led to a three day spree of murder of hundreds of New Christians in Lisbon. The King had been out of the country and upon his return the massacre was halted by troops and the two Dominican friars who had incited the massacre were burnt at the stake.

Memorial to the massacre put up in 2008

Rita also told us that the Inquisition in Portugal started in 1534 when the King married a Spanish princess and brought the Spanish Inquisition to Portugal. Jews and Muslims were often burned to death in the square where we were standing.

The square with the building where the Inquisition took place in Lisbon- now the National Theatre

Another notation about the massacre in the square

Second memorial to the massacre of the Jews

Church of Sao Domingos where the Bishop ordered the killing of Jews

Inside of the Church

We walked down to the arch near the river where we had visited our first night in Lisbon.

Other side of the arch

Rita had earlier talked a lot about the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal and ended the tour with a discussion about the carnation revolution that led to the end of the dictatorship in 1974. She had talked about Salazar's approach which was to keep Portuguese poor and illiterate. No more than three people could gather in public at a time and there was a large secret police. Salazar was Prime Minister from 1932 to 1968 when he suffered a stroke following an accident. He was replaced by Marcelo Caetano. Salazar died in 1970 and in 1974 a military coup took place in which only four civilians were killed (by police, not by the rebels). When the public came out to support the coup, red carnations were put into the muzzles of rifles. Portugal also withdrew from its African colonies by 1975.

After the tour, we went for lunch at Moma Grill, a restaurant where mostly Portuguese were eating their lunch. The food was very good and the portions large.

Outside Moma Grill

Grace had grilled squid kabob

Ann had lamb

Alain and I shared the dorade (huge portion) and a green salad

Man in blue shirt was the owner-- very friendly

We then wandered some more.

Daytime view of the Santa Justa elevator

Beautiful jewelry shop

We stopped briefly at the Café Nicola, another of Lisbon's famous cafe's. Alain had a coffee at the bar. I took one quick photo of the beautiful paintings on the wall, and then a waiter sternly told me that no photos were allowed inside. The Café has been at its present location since 1929 and has beautiful art deco features.

Inside of Café Nicola

Outside the Café

The famous funicular Lisbon trams

Alain and I went for a walk in the Principe Real area just north of Bairro Alto.

Alain had a frozen yogourt from an upscale street vendor

We stopped at a wonderful bakery for bread and some treats.

The neighbourhood had a beautiful shopping gallery with about eight small stores and a restaurant in a three story mansion.

Shopping gallery

We passed a park with some beautiful old trees.

There were also a number of trendy restaurants in the area. A Cevicheria had a giant octopus hanging from the ceiling.

A Cevicheria

We also stopped at a beautiful old soap store called Claus Porto which has been in operation since 1887 and is housed in a wonderful old pharmacy. Alain bought some after-shave lotion.

Alain at Claus Porto

We passed a building with a plaque outside the building that formerly housed the Commission of Prior Examination (censoring free speech) that was dismantled by citizens the day after the April 25, 1974 revolution.

We met Grace and Ann outside of the Café A Brasileira. We were early and took pictures with Fernando Passoa.

Alain and Pessoa

Moi Aussi

We met Ann and Grace and walked to Bota Alta for dinner in the Bairro Alto area not far from where we are staying in Chiado. I had been there with Ann back in the early 1980s and with Alain the last time we were in Lisbon. The portions are almost too large, but the traditional Portuguese food was very good. We ate early as we were all tired.