Fernando Pessoa

Pessoa is a Portuguese word meaning both "person" and "people". Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa, Portugal's most famous modernist poet, was born in Lisbon on the 13th June 1888. From the age of six, Fernando Pessoa is known to have began creating fictional, literary alter-egos, such as Chevalier de Pas, who would write letters of encouragment to the young Pessoa. By the time of his death in 1934, Pessoa had given birth to over seventy of these alter-egos, three of which have been individually proclaimed as major twentieth-century poets in their own right.

Whilst the use of pseudonyms had become fashionable amongst Modernist poets of the time, Pessoa went to great lengths to flesh out his imaginary characters. Referring to his creations as heteronyms (heterónimos) he would describe their personalities, physiques, temperaments even creating detailed biographies and horoscopes for his characters.

Many biographers of Pessoa have defined this drive to create multiple selfs in terms of a modernist crisis of identity, and Pessoa certainly dismissed the notion of a core, irreducible self. However, it's interesting to note that Pessoa had a strong interest in the theory and practice of spiritualism and Kabbalistic magic.

Having translated Aleister Crowleys Hymn to Pan into Portuguese, Pessoa would later help the self-styled "Great Beast of the Apocalypse" to fake his suicide in Cascais in the hope of shaking off Crowleys creditors. An unfinished novel by Pessoa entitled Boca do Inferno ("The Mouth of Hell", the clifftop in Cascais where Crowley faked his suicide) is still to be published. Viewing Pessoas alter-egos from this perspective, his relationship with his heteronyms appears similar to that of a medium channeling a pantheon of spirit guides.

Three of Pessoas heteronyms gained the most recognition - Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis, each of which could have been proclaimed major twentieth-century poets in their own right.

Alberto Caeiro was an unemployed country man without any formal education, but whose poetry Pessoa regarded as far greater than his own. Caeiro's poetry is frequently described as Zen-like in its immediacy and unsentimental clarity, although he scorned the label of mystic.

Alvaro de Campos was the well-travelled futurist and sensualist who indulged in an adventurous lifestyle completely alien to Pessoas uneventful life translating and drafting business letters in English and French. Ricardo Reis was a doctor who wrote odes in an austere, melancholy style. In his writing Pessoa had Ricardo Reis emigrate to Brazil in 1919. Each of these characters would critique each others work, and argue about style, although Campos and Reis both agreed with Pessoa that Caeiro was the true master of poetry within their group.

In 1984 the acclaimed Portuguese author, José Saramago, revived the character of Ricardo Reis for his novel The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. In the novel, the doctor returns to Lisbon in 1935 to visit the grave of Fernando Pessoa who has died the year before.

During his life Pessoa also worked on a piece of prose that was first published almost fifty years after his death, The Book of Disquiet. The heteronym attributed to this work, Bernardo Soares, is much closer to Pessoa's own personality and temperament than his other literary creations. The very introverted Soares records his mundane daily encounters, dreams and observations in a rather scattered diary with little narrative. The book was pieced together from Pessoa's notes and loose papers, and to this day there is no definitive edition. Pessoa did however write a preface for the book which he described as his "factless autobiography."

Façade of the Covilhã Church
Photo: Anabela Maximiano

One of the most striking features of Portuguese towns and cities are the ceramic tiles, azulejos, that adorn many walls and buildings. Tiles depicting saints such as St. Anthony and the Virgin Mary appear on the front porches of countless homes, on hot bright days the sunlight bounces off the tiles, dazzling the passing viewer, whilst keeping the interiors of the homes cool.

The earliest methods of ceramic tile making were introduced into Portugal and Spain by the Moors. Favouring non-representative forms of decorative art for religious reasons, the Moors produced tiles with complex interlaced geometric patterns. The monumental masterpiece of Moorish architecture, the Alhambra in southern Spain, provides a breathtaking example of this geometric approach to design and decoration.

The azulejos, like other aspects of the Moorish empire, have long been thoroughly assimilated into Portuguese culture. Through the 15th and 16th centuries, as Portugal grew wealthier and built up its own empire, the change in culture and circumstances was reflected in the azulejos. No longer constrained by Arab religious edicts governing the depiction of humans, and with the expansion of the Portuguese empire providing plenty of new subject matter, the painters of tiles began to explore countless themes.

At the same time Italian artists developed new methods for creating and painting ceramics that spread across Europe, being introduced into Portugal by Flemish artists and being mastered by Portuguese artists such as Francisco and Marçal de Matos. The brothers oversaw the creation of monumental depictions of biblical events that can still be seen on the azulejos that cover the walls of São Roque church in Lisbon.

Azulejos on house, Cascais
Photo: José Manuel

During the 17th century, Dutch potters from the town of Delft established a reputation for excellence in their creation of finely painted blue and white earthenware (influenced by the introduction of Chinese porcelain into Europe) that became very popular in Portugal.

The popularity of the Dutch imports worried the Portuguese producers of ceramics and led them to hire finer artists to paint the homemade azulejos. By the 18th century the influx of finely trained artists led to the golden age of Portuguese azulejos, referred to as the “Cycle of Masters”. Artists such as António Pereira, Manuel dos Santos, and the father and son of the Oliveira Bernandes family were prolific during this period, becoming the first painters of azulejos to sign their work.

Large orders flowed in from Brazil, where the Portuguese had discovered azulejos highly practical for protecting homes from the damp humidity of the tropics, and following the major earthquake of 1755 huge numbers of decorative tiles were produced for the rebuilding of Lisbon.

Art Nouveau azulejos on a shop in Porto
Photo: Eduardo Moratinos

The birth of a Portuguese bourgeoisie influenced by European fashions of Rococo and Neo-Classicism led to a new wave of work for painters in the 18th and 19th centuries. By the second half of the 19th century ceramic tiles were being produced on a large scale by factories in Lisbon, Porto and Gaia.

Throughout the 20th century to the present day, every new generation of Portuguese ceramists have experimented with new ways to employ azulejos in a modern fashion. From the monumental futurist collage of tiles that stretch across the walls of the Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian to the often quirky and humorous azulejos found on the Lisbon Underground stations such as Oriente.

Portuguese ceramists are renowned for their ability to produce innovative designs with superior quality using some of the most varied processes and technologies and, in an interesting reversal of cultural influence, today the Portuguese find themselves supplying Middle Eastern Arabic countries such as Dubai, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Alentejo meal
Photo: Nuno Calvet

Enjoying good food and wine is considered an essential part of every Portuguese household and the Portuguese are notoriously fussy about the quality of the food that they eat. For most visitors to Portugal the restaurant will be the place to experience the dishes of the country.

We offer several pieces of advice for those looking for a good meal - the cheaper the restaurant the better the food, look first at the Pratos do dia (dishes of the day), order the Vinho de Casa (the house wine) and don't be afraid to send it back if its not to your taste, and most importantly, forget about dieting!

The dishes that are traditionally served up illustrate the result of being at the crossroads of the world for so many years. The Romans introduced wine and olives to the countries cuisine and from the Arab invasion came the casserole and the art of frying. The Portuguese explorations of the far East brought Indian pepper and spices into the national dishes. Hot chillies and coffee were brought from Brazil. African influences from Mozambique and Cape Verde can be tasted in variations of Portuguese feijoada (a stew made with pork and beans).

Bacalhau (salt cod) has long been the favourite Portuguese dish refering to it as fiel amigo (old friend). The salt cod shops offer different grades of salt cod ranging from miudo (the offcuts) to especialidade of the highest quality. The salt cod then needs to be soaked for between twelve to eighteen hours before being scaled and cooked in any of a multitude of different ways. There are literally hundreds of different recipies for this dish, with every region, and many individual towns, having their own unique variations.

Bread, cheese, wine and presunto
Photo: Região de Turismo do Algarve

For lovers of charcoal-grilled food, Portugal is a paradise. Barbequed squid, sea bass, hake and sardines are available at every restaurant and meat eaters are more than adequately catered for, whether your tastes are for grilled beef and chicken, or sucking pig and wild boar.

The Portuguese are also enormously fond of their puddings and virtually every cafe has a selection of cakes, mousse de chocolate, pudim flans and many other very sweet indulgences.

Lisbon was once the western capital of the Roman empire and from the Romans the Portuguese have inherited a love of wine. One Euro can buy you a bottle of genuinely good local wine in the stores, and you'll pay only a few Euro's extra for the same bottle in a restaurant. Portugal has twelve denominated wine producing areas refered to as Denominacao de Origem Controlada. These are regarded as the finest wine producing regions and include Bairrada, Bucelas, Carcavelos, Dao, Douro, Lagoa, Lagos, Portimao, Setubal, Tavira and Vinho Verde.

Thanks to the history of Treaties and allegiances Portugal's port wine has long been familiar to the British. It is claimed that in 1676 two wine shippers from Liverpool were attempting to stablize Portuguese wines for shipping to England and so added brandy - thus creating Port. For a time the English dominated the port-wine trade and formed the association of shippers that led to the now well known labels of Cockburn, Croft, Graham, and Taylor, amongst others.