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Nights (and Days) in
Lisbon
The opening of the Lisbon Sheraton in 1972 was a
major event in the life of this gracious old capital. Two more years would
pass before the Carnation Revolution would at last bring democracy to
Portugal. But somehow the presence of the first modern international hotel
in the heart of the city seemed to herald new beginnings, an opening up
into the larger world from which the nation had secluded itself for so
long.
Magdalena Salinas, a young airline hostess back then,
still remembers the hotel’s inauguration party the night of
September 15. “It was an enormous celebration,” she told us. “For
weeks before everybody all over Lisbon was talking about it. All the
newspapers had stories about it. A small, chic hotel with a beautiful
garden had been demolished to make way for the Sheraton. But no one seemed
to mind. It was out of fashion and in need of repair. And in its place
this magnificent brand new hotel now stood. It was the tallest building in
the city.”
Sixteen year old Americo Garcia was working for a
small hotel in his native city Cascais about twenty kilometers west of
Lisbon when a friend told him there were jobs to be had at the Sheraton.
He went down, was hired as a busboy, and reported for work the day of the
inauguration party. Like Magdalena, Americo has not forgotten the
excitement of that time.
The night of September 15, 1972, Magdalena and
Americo were strangers across a crowded room. Today they are in daily
contact with one another. After a career that included being an airline
hostess and fashion model, Magdalena assumed directorship of the Sheraton’s
public relations operations in 1997. Americo never went back to the small
hotel in Casicas but stayed on at the Sheraton moving up over the years
from busboy to maitre d’ of its restaurant. He still makes the half hour
train commute from Casais each day, however, and he still has the brochure
from that opening year, “to remember the old times.”
The tall rectangular building in the style of 1970’s
modernism has gone through successive renovations and refurbishments since
the old times Americo so fondly recalls. At the time of our arrival, the
lobby had just been redone into an expanse of hardwood floors and marble
walls with sleek contemporary furnishings that gleamed beneath futuristic
glass bocks recessed into the high ceiling. There were health club
facilities for guests’ use, a Towers floor with butler service, private
lounges and check-in services, and state of the art communications
facilities – all unimaginable thirty years ago. But the Sheraton is
still Lisbon’s tallest building, and from its upper floors, the entire
city spreads out in spectacular panorama.
In 1972, a female general manager at the Lisbon
Sheraton would have been as inconceivable as its high tech meeting room.
Yet for the past three years, Jennifer Buhr has held that position,
overseeing the hotel’s latest transformations as well as its day-to-day
functions. German-born and married to an Englishman, Jennifer loves the
Lisbon life. “I admire the culture, the nightlife – it’s perfectly
safe to go around at night. There are lovely people, great restaurants,
excellent wines – as you shall see,” she told us as we settled into a
table at Alfama Gourmet Corner, the Sheraton’s specialty restaurant a
few steps up from the Caravela Restaurant its more all-purpose,
open-all-day dining room. Magdalena was there, ready to join us for
dinner, and as Americo presented the menus, we had the feeling we were
joining a family get-together.
Ladies
in magenta: Magdalina Salinas (left) and Jennifer Buhr at the Amalfa
Gourmet Corner of the Lisbon Sheraton |
Dining at the Alfama, named for one of Lisbon’s oldest and most
distinctive neighborhoods, it is easy to forget you are in a hotel
that is part of an international chain. Executive chef Dany Dagher,
who grew up in Toronto and came to Lisbon by way of Moscow where he
was executive chef at the city’s first western style hotel, is
expert in the preparation of typical Portuguese dishes -- he even
gives weekly classes in the cuisine to women in Lisbon’s American
Club. |
He also is a vociferous advocate of Portuguese wines.
“I wish you would advertise the news about Portuguese wines,” he told
us as he uncorked a dry and crisp white Bucelas. “People in North
America don’t know much about them. I was always a devotee of French and
Italian wines. But now I drink Portuguese wines exclusively: the Duoros
from the north, the Alentejos from the south, the wonderful dessert wines
like the Pouriga Nacional from the Douro River region.”
| The dinner Dany prepared for our little group included an amuse bouche
of grilled shrimp with corn bread and a delicious white cheese whose
consistency was somewhere between the American farmer and cream
cheese.
He served a minestrone soup filled with cabbage, peas, carrots and
small pasta in a chicken broth that had been enhanced by a freshly
made and garlicy tomato sauce which gave it a uniquely piquant
flavor. Our entrée was a shish kabob of monk fish with peppers and
onions and grilled Portuguese lobster. And for dessert, we had the
Pasteis Denata, a puff pastry filled with a mixture of syrup, eggs,
milk, and cinnamon, sinfully rich but worth every calorie. |
Executive Chef Dany Dagher actively promotes
Portuguese wine and cuisine Maitre d’ Americo Garcia (at right)
began his career as a sixteen year old busboy |
If since its opening nearly thirty years ago the
Sheraton has addressed itself to
Lisbon’s twentieth and now twenty-first century future, a short
straight walk from the front door brings you to the Marques do Pombal
Square which swiftly plunges you into its eighteenth century past. Named
for the despotic prime minister responsible for the re-building of Lisbon
after the catastrophic earthquake of 1755, this monumental plaza stands at
the top of the broad and leafy Avenida da Liberdade that descends to the
Rossio, a large square with cafes, restaurants, and small shops lining its
perimeter. This is where the neighborhood known as Baixa begins, a
grid-like area of formally laid out avenues which Pombal designed to be
built over the earthquake’s ruins.
The Rua Augusta, a lively pedestrian byway of
boutiques, open air cafes, and ubiquitous street performers starts at the
far end of the Rossio and concludes at a grand baroque arch that ushers
you into the vast and stately Paca de Comercio whose bright yellow
neo-classical buildings with graceful arcades face the Tagus River. For
four hundred years until leveled by the earthquake, the royal palace stood
here. Looking up at the city from the perspective of the river as gateway,
it is easy to see why the royals selected this site.
Lisbon is an easy city to negotiate. Taxis are
inexpensive and seem to always be there whenever needed. Charming trolleys
wend their way through hilly cobblestone streets. We spent one morning at
the re-constructed twelfth century St. George Castle, strolling the
ramparts, enjoying the panoramic views, and admiring preening peacocks
intent on spreading their gaudy plumage. That afternoon we wandered around
Belem, the region at the mouth of the Tagus from which caravels once set
sail. The Jeronimos Monastery, thought to be the finest expression of
Manueline architecture, the highly ornamental gothic style which combines
elements of Christianity with ropes, shells and other aquatic symbols is
here. From the car park across the way, it looked like a gigantic wedding
cake. Nearby the Tower of Belem in the same high Gothic style stands as a
reminder of the time it was a beacon for returning navigators. Portugal’s
maritime glory still lingers in Belem transporting visitors back in time
to the Age of Discovery.
Looking up at St. George’s Castle |
A
Show Off At St. George's Castle |
The “show-off” in a more subdued mood |
As does the display of Portuguese and Chinese
ceramics and porcelain at Lisbon’s Museum of Ancient Arts. In 1834, as a
consequence of the democratic influences brought about by the French
Revolution, Portugal’s monasteries and convents were closed and their
art transferred to museums. Although it did not open until fifty years
later, the Museum of Ancient Art has more works of art from these
religious institutions than any other museum in Portugal. Its collection
of Chinese and Portuguese porcelain, however, was most interesting to us
as it revealed the influence of Ming porcelain brought back home by
traders on subsequent Portuguese designs. The results of the
attempts by Portuguese craftsmen to unlock the secrets of creating Chinese
porcelain over hundreds of years centuries provides a fascinating glimpse
into this intriguing aspect of Portuguese history.
An aspect of Portuguese history we were anxious to
explore was its Jewish connection, but Lisbon offers little tangible
reminders of the vital presence that was stamped out by exile, forced
conversions, and the Inquisition. The Amalfa area, the old Moslem quarter,
with its dark alleys and winding streets, still has remnants of a long
gone Jewish community in the form of a Jewish street and an office
building that has been identified as a former synagogue. Sea-faring
instruments designed by Jewish scientists are on display in the Naval
Musuem, and Portugal’s Board of Tourist Trade is making an effort to
explore the nation’s Jewish connection. There are two synagogues in
Lisbon. One, Ohel Jacov, is an Ashkenazi shul created by refugees from
fascism in the 1930’s. Long abandoned, it has recently been taken over
by a group of people who identify themselves as Jews. They have no rabbi
but are led by a man from Belmonte, the Portuguese community whose members
retained their secret Jewish identity for over 500 years. The other is the
Sephardic Share Tikva whose entry is off a court since when it was built
in 1902, a synagogue was not allowed to face the street. At first no sign
identified it, although today its name and a Star of David are visible.
Old
Jewish street in the Amalfa section |
The “abimah” of Share Tikva, Lisbon’s
Sephardic synagogue built in 1902 |
Our last day in Lisbon we met Lara Cesana, an artist
who was born in Italy, raised in the United States, and now lives in
Lisbon.
Some years ago, through a kind of dream-like experience, she came
upon what has become her life’s mission: the discovery and artistic
rendering of the Portuguese-Jewish experience. Traveling throughout the
country, she uncovered hidden and transformed customs of a centuries’
old submerged Jewish presence. These findings have found their way into a
collection of striking Expressionistic-style paintings revealing Lara’s
internal as well as external journeys. Exhibited in museums throughout the
world, they are collectively included along with the artist’s musings in
her book Jewish Vestiges in Portugal.
Lara told us her family left Italy for America before
outbreak of the Second World War, and hearing her story, seeing her
creative works and learning about her mission somehow brought to mind Eric
Maria Remarque's novel Night in Lisbon which described the Lisbon of that
period when it was a safe haven for Jews fleeing Nazism, a port of escape
to the Americas. This was the second time in history that Portugal was a
sanctuary for persecuted Jews -- the first time in 1492, accommodation was
all too transitory.
In the melancholy state of mind such reflection
caused, we spent our last "night in Lisbon" at the Club da Fado,
a small grotto-like restaurant in the Amalfa area, close by the cathedral
– a site that was typical for medieval Jewish communities throughout
Iberia. Here we had a
traditional dinner of salted codfish, drank a bottle of Bairrada, and
listened to the haunting and distinctively Portuguese music fado.
Mario Pacheco, a soulful, sensitive man who owns the restaurant and
composes fado, plays what looks like an oblong-shaped mandolin in a trio
that includes a bass fiddle and guitar. Four singers performed that
night; two vibrant and beautiful young women, a middle aged woman with a
husky contralto, and a jaded-looking older man who sang with a lit
cigarette in his hand. We understood not a word. But the longing, regret,
fervor, and passion they expressed in their songs required no translation.
They call it saudade – a
particular Portuguese emotional quality that embodies a sense of loss and
yearning for the past.
The next morning when we boarded the TAP jet for the
trip home, the smiling flight attendants suggested a mood far from saudade.
But the voices and music we had heard the night before which seemed to
encapsulate the entire Lisbon experience for us were resonating in our
heads. We hear them still.
_______________________________
Sheraton Lisboa Hotel and Towers
Rua Latino Coelbo
1 1069-025 Lisbon
Phone: 351-21-312-0000
Club de Fado
Rua S. Joao da Praca, 94
1100 Lisboa
Phone: 21 888 2694
Photos by Harvey Frommer
# # #
About the
Authors: Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer are a wife and husband team who
successfully bridge the worlds of popular culture and traditional scholarship.
Co-authors of the critically acclaimed interactive oral histories It Happened in
the Catskills, It Happened in Brooklyn, Growing Up Jewish in America, It
Happened on Broadway, and It Happened in Manhattan, they teach what they
practice as professors at Dartmouth College.
They are also travel writers who specialize in luxury properties and fine dining
as well as cultural history and Jewish history and heritage in the United
States, Europe, and the Caribbean. (More
about these authors.)
You can contact the Frommers at:
Email: myrna.frommer@Dartmouth.EDU
(myrna frommer)
Email: harvey.frommer@dartmouth.edu
Web:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer/travel.htm.
This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2008 by Harvey and Myrna Frommer. All rights
reserved worldwide.
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