Postcards from Lisbon

Night time in Lisbon


Over 12 milion tourists have visited Portugal last year, according to the local media. Tourism is contributing with about 5% at Portugal’s gross domestic product. Lisbon is, after Barcelona, the European city attracting most tourists, with 7 milion tourists sleeping in the city’s hotels in 2006, according to DN online. The number of tourists grew by 11,8 % compared to the previous year.

Pink ice cream

Inside this river of green and gray, trees and buildings, tourists and businessmen, pink suddenly appears. Smiling to everybody passing by, Maria, a round faced chubby lady, sells her pink ice-cream for one, two or three euros, depending on the number of ice-cream bulbs. She does the same thing, every day, on the Liberdade Av., until 7 pm, hiding from the sun beneath a pink umbrella. The when she takes the metro home, across the city, somewhere near Pontinha. Her three children, aged 7 to 16 get dressed, eat and study of Maria’s pink ice-cream.

Poor “Alegria”

Here begins the middle-class life, protected from the tourists that invade the city, just like a swarm of clicking insects, taking photos one after another. Here, instead of photo-cameras, people walk with groceries bags in their hands, while backpacks are only worn by the little-ones returning back from school. Luis and his family are standing in front of their house, enjoying lunch, in the space left free by a car that parted from the sidewalk provisory parking lot. They’re having fish. “We stay like this when we are all at home. This is fish. It is good”, Luis says, while his wife laughs loudly of her husbands’ attempt in speaking a foreign language.
The “sight” of English seems to attract some other people and pairs of eyes to appear in the windows like some portrait exhibition framed by an unconventional artist.

Text: Adrian M. Popa

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Azulejos – the specific Portuguese Art

“Tiles! We work to preserve them!” (Carcavelos –Duarte e Rosa, Lda.)


Let’s talk about ceramics. This type of Portuguese art is called ‘Azulejos’, manafactured for about five centuries. It has a really strong history, makes a great present and also has a bright future. It signifies the soul of the Portugal, which is a colorful one.

Duarde Morgado, the manager of this shop, prefers the innovative paints, because he said he’s really good at it, and also his employees. He discovered his passion for this activity at about 16 years old, but he’s disappointed that his only son doesn’t share the same hobby, continuing this family business: he’s a modern student at architecture, leaving Portugal for studying in New York. Asked about his future plans, Duarte said that they want to research more about the tiles’ composition and also improving the polychromes and glazes, keeping up to date with the newest methods.

An important step in giving life to these tiles is the one when choosing the colors. There are two options: blue or multicolor. Blue, as Duarde’s wife, Rosa, said, represents the best the Portugal, expressing serenity, optimism and clarity. And the Portuguese people are characterized by this description also.

It’s good to know that more tiles doesn’t necessarily imply a higher price. In the price there are included a lot of factors, and tiles can be as expensive as 180 euros for only one tile. But one can also pay 20 euros for 30 tiles. So, the price is about factors: antiquity, method, material, size, and number.

Some models can be seen in the Palacio National de Sinatra in the center of Lisbon, in Palacio Marquies de Poma (where the paint was remade), in the Casino Lisboa Marcau, on a lot of streets, restaurants, different building, in the houses’ interior and of course, in a lot of specialized books.

The most popular and the most important paint made by Duarte e Rosa Morcado is called “The leaves and the grapes”, which actually represents the stamp of a grouse. It’s an abstract paint, but full of expressivity, showing the multiple personality of life. Excepting these tiles, they can also make different other things, like plates, decorations for locals, ashtrays and so many other forms. It’s a ceramic paradise out there and it’s a sin if you miss it, because Azulejo is one of the main industries in this dynamic city.


Name: Ceramica Artistica de CarcavelosAddressAvenida do Loureiro, 47 – b, 2775 – 599, CarcavelosContact21.456.32.67, www/azulejos@ceramica-carcavelos.pt The best painted ceramics would be in the Carcavelos, at about 12 kilometers from Lisbon. It’s called Duarte & Rosa Lda. and it’s the best one because it has an essential difference: there you can see the employees painting in front of you. They talk to you, explaining what they’re doing and what they want to do.


Text: Catalina Chersin
Photo: Yannick Brusselmans