FADO – THE SONGS ABOUT FATE

 

«The fado was born one day/ When hardly a breeze was whispering/ And the sea merged into the sky/ In the tacking of a sailing ship/ In the breast of a sailor-boy/ Who was singing in his melancholy» – so goes the poem written by José Régio and sung by Amália Rodrigues. 

The real origins of Lisbon’s traditional song are probably much more recent than the era of the Discoveries. There is no written record of the fado before the 19^th century. Its melody, which is thought to be the successor of the «lundum» danced by black slaves in Brazil, follows a four-line stanza where each line has a 10-syllable count. But aboveall, it reflects a state of spirit, sad and nostalgic, that Lisbon has made its own. 

During the 19^th century, the fado (the song about fate) was sung all over Lisbon, from Calçada de Carriche to the flat-bottomed boats of the River Tagus, through the taverns of Bairro Alto and the narrow streets of Mouraria. The poignant plucking of guitars was heard in Arco do Cego and in Madre de Deus, in Lumiar and in Laranjeiras, in the Quebra-Bilhas tavern and in the bullring at Campo de Santana. The fado was sung in markets, brothels and palaces.

(continued on the book Lisbon for the Cultivated Tourist,

by Marina Tavares Dias)

EÇA DE QUEIROZ AND «LIFE'S LOSERS»

Marina Tavares Dias
book

THE LISBON OF EÇA DE QUEIROZ:

Eça de Queiroz, the most famous Portuguese novelist of the late 1800s, was part of a literary group with the provocative title os «Life's Losers» or «Losers of Life». They reunited during long evenings of delicious conversation and even more delicious suppers at Lisbon's best restaurants of the time. 

Here is a very raare photograph of «The Losers of Life» (with the exception of António Cândido) photographed by Augusto Bobone in 1889, in the garden of the house of the Count of Arnoso, on Rua de S. Domingos à Lapa: Marquês de Soveral (Luiz Pinto de Soveral, 1850-1922), Carlos Lima Mayer (1846-1910), Count of Sabugosa (António José de Mello Cezar de Menezes, 1854-1923), Oliveira Martins (1846-1894), Carlos Lobo d'Ávila (1860-1895), Eça (1845-1900) ), Ramalho Ortigão (1836-1915), Guerra Junqueiro (1850-1923), Count of Arnoso (Bernardo Pinheiro Correia de Mello, 1855-1911) and Count of Ficalho (Francisco Manoel de Mello Breyner, 1837-1903).

«Paris made the Revolution, London gave us Shakespeare, Vienna gave Mozart, Berlin gave Kant, Lisbon... has given US – what the hell!»
- Eça de Queiroz in a letter to Ramalho Ortigão, July 20, 1873.
Follow them. In the book or here:

Several original pieces, with original phtograph/albumen, in high resolution,
of «The Life's Losers», 1889. On sale at:

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Own part of our Magic Lisbon

The most comprehensive personal archives about Lisbon, Portugal, History (original negatives, photographs and thousands of objects) now give you a chance to own a piece of their fascination. Here are the first designs and artworks, via Redbubble, from the Arquivo Marina Tavares Dias. Enjoy. Thanks for your help building an archive open to the general public. 

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BAIXA – DOWNTOWN LISBON

The Rua Nova, 

with its arcades and selling spots,

was the centre of Renaissance Lisbon

(drawing: Alberto de Souza)

From the era of the Discoveries, the Baixa – or downtown Lisbon (situated between Rossio and the present location of Praça do Comércio) has boasted of all kinds of shops. Before the 1755 earthquake, the area was considerably different from what it is nowadays: it had a maze of winding, narrow streets with countless dead-ends. However, the main street was already the Rua Nova dos Mercadores (New Mercant Street). When being drawn up by the Marquis of Pombal's engineers after the earthquake, the new downtown area respected local, centuries-old tradition. The new streets, a lot wider now, were named according to the kind of trade going on there: Rua do Ouro (for the goldsmiths); Rua da Prata (for the silversmiths); Rua dos Douradores (Gilders Street); Rua dos Correeiros (Leather Merchants Street); Rua dos Franqueiros (Cutlery Merchants Street), etc.

Marina Tavares Dias

in Lisbon for the Tourist Who Loves History

LISBON CRIES

The selling cries of Lisbon's
STREET VENDORS

by MARINA TAVARES DIAS:


For many centuries, generation upon generation of Lisbon dwellers lived almost exclusively on products sold in the streets. Innumerable peddlers populated the streets all over the city, hawking all the wares needed in daily life: water, milk, fish, fruit, vegetables, cured sausages, olive oil, paraffin, coal, shirts, caps and scarves, shoes, knives, vases, chairs or lampshades. Broad beans were sold in a stew with gravy (called «fava-rica»); apart from being knife-grinders, tinkers also mended umbrellas; boys whittled toothpicks while girls made flowers to decorate hats. Each product had a different cry or call announcing it and many of them were sung. Some of them became famous, like the cry of the fishwives singing out «Viva da Costa!» – «Alive from the Coast!», or the call of the newpaper kids: «Século-Nooootícias!».

FEIRA DA LADRA – THE FLEA MARKET

«He who has not seen the Feira da Ladra even once has no idea how much vitality death has!» – so wrote Júlio de Castilho. The Flea Market is as old as the conquest of Lisbon itself and its name «Feira da Ladra» appeared for the first time in a municipal ordinance of 1610. But the market still held today (every Tuesday and Saturday) at Campo de Santa Clara has only been held since 1882. Before that, it was situated at Campo Santana, in a square called Praça da Alegria and near St. George’s Castle. 

The famous curse cast on the Santa Engrácia Church lasted four long centuries. It was once said by an unfortunate man condemned to die while protesting his innocence that he would be avenged and the work going on at the time to build the church would never be done. At long last, the dome was finally finished (with the use of concrete) during the 1960’s. Before this date, all photographs of the church showed its incomplete state.

MARINA TAVARES DIAS

in LISBON FOR THE TOURIST WHO LOVES HISTORY

THE FATEFUL CONFLUENCE OF RIVERS

As from the 15th century, the centre of Lisbon was established in a deep valley which had been covered by river waters many centuries before. It was a swampy piece of ground forking off into two riverbeds that had long-since dried up. During the Iron Age, these two small tributaries of the River Tagus ran along courses that were later to become the two first avenues in Lisbon, Avenida da Liberdade and Avenida Almirante Reis. 

The broad valley where they converged was to become Rossio. Curiously enough, the sound of underground running water may still be heard in the cellars of the D. Maria II Theatre. The whole of northern Rossio’s area lies on the confluence of rivers. This has always been held responsible for all kinds of disasters happening there. 

Fire destroyed the National Theatre (1964) and the S. Domingos Church (1959) and before them, fire also gutted the Inquisitional Palace along with the tragic records stored in there. One such record has to do a famous playwright known as «The Jew» who, after being imprisoned in Rossio, was burned at the stake in Terreiro do Paço (the Royal Palace Grounds) in 1739. Some say the confluence of rivers is answerable for many of the Inquisition’s tragedies. [...]

Marina Tavares Dias 

in 

LISBON FOR THE TOURIST WHO LOVES HISTORY

ANTONIA, our little Princess

Small quotes from

ANTONIA 

the Portuguese Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Princess

Chapter VI  of  volume VIII of  LOST LISBON

16 year old Antonia a few days 

before leaving Lisbon, in 1861.

The Book: 

LISBOA DESAPARECIDA

by

MARINA TAVARES DIAS



[After leaving Portugal for the last time, on her 1887 visit, Princess Antonia confesses to her brother, King Luiz, while travelling back to Germany through Spain: ]



[.../...] «'It is not the climate of my beloved Portugal, that light warm I have many, many times missed so much! No one knows how my heart suffers for being away, this is just for me, and if you were here now, for you too , my good Brother , because I keep no secrets from you .» 

Princess Antonia’s visit to Lisbon straightened ties between brother and sister . Antonia goes on: "I have suffered much from a kind of ice that lives inside the German hearts. They never have the same sincerity of the good-hearted Portuguese People . I sometimes fear that I am too much dedicated to my country. Only now, after having been there , do I realize how I love the Portuguese. When I left Portugal was very young, almost a child [Antónia was 16] , all seemed to be okay for me, I did not think I could ever find less love in my new homeland ' [Germany], D. Antonia reveals , without fear of exceeding herself, all her feelings to the King, to whom she had already talked in private. 

For their German relatives , she was expansive in excess: "If I was sad, I shouldn’t show what I felt, but if I laughed,  they criticized me for being too loud, thus forcing me to be someone other than myself. At 19 years of age, I had already felt more harshly than many people during all their lives’ [.../...]»