Lisbon: Culture Capital ‘94

The more I get to know and love Lisbon (I’ve just returned from my tenth visit), the more I divide it in my mind into three parts: downtown, the cultural center in Belem, and the Cascais / Estoril vacation spots. Each sector has its special charms, but all of them are of particular interest during 1994, while Lisbon is the cultural capital of Europe.
 
It got partly up to speed in 1992 when, as the site of the European Community’s rolling presidency, it inaugurated its EC-funded cultural center in Belem. Across the street are the already rich cultural treasures of the Maritime Museum (the Portuguese never let you forget they are the country of Prince Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama, who opened the Orient and Africa up to Europe as early as the 15th Century); the stunning Archaeological Museum which picks up the story in its prehistory and Roman era and never stops digging; and the St. Jerome Monastery and Church, which Manuel II built to thank God for Vasco da Gama.
 
And a five minute walk away on the Tagus River waterfront is the astonishing Electricity Museum, where in 1989 they converted a disused power plant into a walk-through description of the way electricity has powered Lisbon and Portugal over the past century. It’s only rivaled in it brilliance by the Water Museum near Santa Apollonia train station, where in 1986 the centrality of water to an advanced civilization is explored in a disused 18th-Century reservoir and pumping station. Those Portuguese are waste not-want not paragons.
 
The first two major exhibitions at the Belem Cultural Center are devoted to the second greatest architect and the premiere painter of the 20th-Century Portugal, Fernando Tavora and Almada Negreiros. To call Tavora the second best is no insult, since it was his student at the University of Porto, Siza Alvaro, who won the Pritzker Prize in 1992: Together, the two make Porto the most formidable architectural facility in Europe.
 
Actually, the Belem show is a jubilee celebration: Tavora is retiring at 70, after 40 years of teaching. He is a remarkable man, and the show reveals his wide-ranging sensibility. A letter home from him as a 13-year-old in 1937 shows Salazar’s head in the upper left, Hitler’s in the lower left, Mussolini’s in the lower right and Franco’s in the upper right. Nice role models!
 
Fernando is a world-class pack rat, and the exhibition contains what he drew in architecture school, what he has collected (Portuguese painters, including a wide range of delectable folk art), and of course his architecture. Tavora is not only a great architect and fabulous schmoozer, but a thoughtful humanist, as I found out when I visited him in his office in Porto.
 
His account of how he cried tears of joy in 1960 when he made an extensive trip to the United States and first saw Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin East is as moving as his allegation that Walt Whitman turned him on to his egalitarian vision—not a handy view to entertain during Salazar’s reign.
 
Indeed, in 1940, the dictator convened the architects of Portugal to plan rebuilding the country but was so miffed at the endemic leftism among them that he turned over the reconstruction to civil engineers! Tavora taught hard during this interregnum, training a cadre of first-class architects who now make almost every village and city street a source of visual joy today.
 
I know of no country in Europe with a higher median of good design than Portugal. A young professor at the University, Luis Soares Carneiro, who has sat at the feet of both Tavora and Siza, claims that the poverty of Portugal not only kept it construction-industry crafts people alive and performing beautifully, but that scarcities of materials and money forced architects to make an austere elegance that I find utterly ravishing.
 
And to call Almada a painter is absurdly narrow, although that work gained him his major reputation. But he was a caricaturist, a muralist and a stained glass artist—in short, a polymath who makes Picasso look like a punk. (I’m not kidding; serious revisionism is imminent as this man’s work becomes known outside Portugal.)
 
I first became aware of his brilliance when I got lost walking from the Sheraton to the offices of Architecti, the principal design magazine in Portugal which I write for. The Art Deco Church of Our Lady of Fatima caught my eye. The outside is fine enough—by the same architect who designed the Cap Soudre train station and the great Maritime Station on the waterfront. But the interior is simply gorgeous; from the holy water font in the baptistery to the major stained glass windows, it is a world-class masterpiece. The Tavora / Almeda double header is reason enough for you to book a plane for Lisbon.
 
Downtown:
The green #90 bus will whisk you for a few escudos from the airport past the Marquis do Pombal Square down the Avenida do Liberdade to Rossio Square (where trains to the interior originate) and eventually to Santa Apollonia station, which serves international routes like Madrid and Paris.
 
At the Cap do Sodre train / bus station you can buy a cheap pack of tickets and a bus guide that tells you how and when to go anywhere in the city. By the way, seniors ride the rails half fare (any photo I.D. will do). Get out at M. do Pombal Square and ramble down the Avenida. It is replete with Art Deco masterpieces by Cassiano Branca—the big movie theaters for example, and strangely enough, Communist Party Headquarters in the former Hotel Victoria.
 
The Communists were so powerful a bloc during the 1974 revolution which overthrew Salazar that they had the pick of the litter when it came to settling into the best buildings. I did all my souvenir shopping in its marvelous gift shop—mainly folk crafts, but also an ecumenical collection of books. You’ll probably want to stay downtown until you get oriented. You have many different kinds of lodgings to choose from on the Avenida and the streets jutting out from it: the $200-a-night Pullman, or right across the street at the Residencia Avenida for $20.
 
Central Lisbon is full of wonders, like the Gustav Eiffel lift that whisks you up to the top level of the city near Rossio. (Wear comfortable, sturdy shoes when you visit Lisbon. It’s full of ups and downs, and hard cobbly surfaces.) Or the Chiaga district, ravaged by fire a few years back, whose rehabilitation is the major project of Siza Alvaro. Or the falsely attributed to Eiffel garage near the national legislature, which has automotive stained glass windows of the greatest charm.
 
The Palacio Foz is the headquarters both for tourism in general (on the street level) and LISBOA 94 in particular (on the third floor). If you want a handsome free catalog outlining the year’s festivities, write to Lisboa 94, Palacio Foz, 1000 Lisbon, Portugal. Or drop in after you’ve arrived.
 
Another venue full of surprises is the Forum across the street from the Sheraton Hotel. On my last visit, the Patrimony Fair was in full progress. This is essentially a concerted effort to keep folk crafts and cuisine alive and well. It was a great two hours.
 
The time before, it was the Post Office premiering a new book on the history of Portuguese painting culled from the zillions of stamps of classic Portuguese paintings they commission. There is a pocket-sized weekly Lisbon Agenda that clues you in on the passing parade, and a weekly Anglo-Portuguese News aimed at British expatriates will keep you even more current.
 
And at least try to read Publico, the first independent daily newspaper in the country’s history. Portuguese are justly proud of its success because it’s an emblem of their successfully converting from dictatorship to full-fledged democracy. (Read the ads if nothing else!)
 
Cascais / Estoril:
The Cap do Sodre train station leads to Belem (although you may want to try the pokey little street cars at least once) and on to Cascais. I recommend you have at least one meal at Michel’s in the old Gara Maritima at the Alacantara stop. Michel is the Julia Child of Portugal and has recently started teaching groups of visiting American women how he does it.
 
The seafood dinner I had there for $40 (a delicious vinho verde included) was memorable. I have tried everything from working-class lunch places to the most elegant hotel dining rooms, and I can honestly say I’ve never met a Portuguese meal I didn’t like. Especially the sea food.
 
The Cascais and Estoril Coast:
Cascais and Estoril, once the playgrounds of European royalty, are now reduced to package tours and daytrippers. Estoril is more upper upper and gambling-oriented; Cascais is a family affair.
 
I have stayed over the years at the Village Cascais, the Citadella, and the Baia. They range, depending on time of year, from $50 to $100 a night, phone haggling from the airport or train station possible.
 
Stay at the Baia if you love sea views. Room 407 had me mesmerized at dusk and at dawn (and most of the hours in between, if you want to know the truth!). The gaily painted fishing boats are a bit of performance art of their own as they head out to sea or return laden home. Don’t miss the recently rehabbed Maritime Museum behind the glorious public garden.
 
Next to the Village Cascais is a spooky old folly of a castle with an erratic exhibition program and almost no curating I’ve ever been able to track down. But the architect was pleasantly nuts, and you’ll savor rooms like the one with the shamrock tiled ceiling, a homage to the owner’s native Ireland.
 
From Welcomat: Summer Guide ’94, May 25, 1994