Lisbon - The Retraction

In May of this year, I spent a week in Portugal. When I returned, I posted a few postcards from my trip.  One of these posts, that of May 31 requires a retraction.  (I feel like the New York Times having to make a correction.  Okay, maybe not.)

In it, I described how our tour guide had told us that Lisbon was known for identifying monuments and other structures they liked and admired, and building their own versions.  The Triumphal Arch ("Arco do Triunfo e Rua Augusta") was  cited as an example of this.  In the Postcrossing postcard above, Joana corrects me:  "I read on your blog what you wrote about it and I have to make a correction.  The Arch is actually older than the one in Paris.  This one was built in 1775 although it was then demolished and rebuilt in 1875.  Even so it is not at all a copy of the one in Paris."

Joana, this correction is for you! 

25th of April Bridge

What's this?  The Golden Gate Bridge, but wth Lisboa printed in the upper right corner?

In fact, this is the Ponte 25 de Abril, or 25th of April Bridge in Lisbon, Portugal.  According to the Wiki, "Because of its similar coloring, it is often compared to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA. In fact, it was built by the same company (American Bridge Company) that constructed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and not the Golden Gate, also explaining its similarity in design."  However, according to our tour guide, there is more than one monument/structure/building in Lisbon that takes as its "inspiration" another monument/structure/building somewhere in the world, and when Salazar was running the show in Portugal from 1932 to 1974, he was known for looking around and "borrowing" ideas from other places.   I imagine there are elements of truth in both versions.  [Note:  other examples in Lisbon include a Champs Elysees (Avenida da Liberdade), an Arc d'Triomphe (Arco do Triunfo), and a Corcovado (Cristo Rei).] 

One of ways travel gets the synapses in my brain firing is the history you either learn, or are reminded you once knew.  I don't know that I was very aware of, or even knew about, Salazar, who was the authoritarian dictator in Portugal at the same time Franco was in charge in Spain.  The dictatorship was overthrown in what's referred to as the "Carnation Revolution", which began on the 25th of April, thus the name.

The Author Series III - Fernando Pessoa

Have you ever heard of Fernando Pessoa? I hadn’t. He died before he was 50, in 1935, and at least one critic considers him one of the most representative poets of the 20th century. This postcard shows a sculpture of Pessoa, seated in front of a famous coffee house in Lisbon, "A Brasileira". When we were in Lisbon , our tour guide walked us by this place, describing Pessoa as one of the most famous and revered of Portuguese writers, known for writing in a variety of different styles.

In fact, Pessoa is known for inventing the concept of “heteronyms”, which he used throughout his life.  More than 70 heteronyms are attibuted to him, some of whom “knew” each other and criticized and translated each other’s works. (Sounds like Sybil to me.)

From the Wiki:

The literary concept of heteronym, invented by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, refers to one or more imaginary character(s) created by a writer to write in different styles. Heteronyms differ from nom de plumes (or pseudonyms, from the Greek "False Name") in that the latter are just false names, while the former are characters having their own supposed physiques, biographies and writing styles.

These heteronyms sometimes intervened in Pessoa's social life: during Pessoa's only known romance, a jealous Campos (one of his heteronyms) wrote letters to the girl, who, enjoying the game, wrote back.

Now I know what the tour guide meant.