“The best way to travel is to feel” Pessoa wrote, “so feel everything in every possible way.”
Fernando Pessoa is one of the most famous poets from Portugal. He had 136 alter-egos according to a recent anthology (Eu Sou Uma Antologia – 136 autores fictícios) and wrote in both Portuguese and English, although he is known mainly for his Portuguese poems.
Bertrand Bookstore, the oldest bookstore in the world, has operated since 1732. Bookstores abound in Lisbon. During the dictatorship, people were intentionally not educated and the illiteracy rate was 30%. The rate is now at 4%, still the highest in Europe, but mainly due to those who grew up during the dictatorship.
During World War II, Lisbon was a nest of spies from every country. The Axis and the Allies knew who was a spy and would meet in Casinos to play against each other. Sound familiar? Ian Fleming was a spy during WWII and his James Bond books are based on what he saw in Lisbon during that time.
On November 1, 1755 from 9:30-9:40 a.m., an earthquake with an estimated strength of 8.7-9.1 on the Richter scale and the subsequent tsunami leveled 90% of Lisbon. As it was All Saints Day, many were at morning mass. The Carmo Convent ruins are left as a homage to that awful event. Alfama, as it was on a hill that has a massive rock, was not leveled and remains a neighborhood of low buildings and winding streets. King Joseph I survived and spent the next 10 years living in a tent and then a wooden house. He never returned to Lisbon, but rather left the rebuilding to the prime minister Sebastião de Melo (1st Marquis of Pombal). Manuel da Maia, chief engineer to the realm, came up with an ambitious design of razing the streets and rebuilding with widened, grid like streets similar to Paris. In addition, the new “Pombaline” buildings were the earliest seismically protected constructions in Europe. Because King Joseph I had abandoned the city, the statue of him at Praca do Commercio has snakes on it.
On April 25, 1974, about 1000 personnel in the navy staged a coup. Other military personnel were told to go and shoot them down on site. However, neither side wanted to shoot the other. A flower shop owner gave out 2 red carnations to every person on the street with the instructions to put them in the muzzles of the rebels calling for democracy – because the people were behind them – as well as a carnation in the muzzles of the national forces – because they were Portuguese, too. It is therefore called the Carnation Revolution. The revolution ended with almost no casualties; unfortunately, 4-6 people were killed by a random gunmen who was trigger happy.
Lisbon from São Jorge castle.