Overview
The Café A Brasileira (; "The Brazilian Café"), previously spelled as A Brazileira, is a café located in Lisbon, specifically at 120 Rua Garrett, in the civil parish of Santa Maria Maior. Opened in 1905 by Adrian Telles as a shop for import and sale of Brazilian coffee, it is now one of the oldest and most famous cafés in the old quarter of Lisbon. In the 1920s, the café became a popular meeting place for Lisbon’s intellectuals, artists, and writers. Among them was Fernando Pessoa, who often spent time there. A bronze statue of Pessoa sitting at a table is installed beside the terrace outside the café.
History
. During the middle of the 19th century, the Hotel Borges is founded along the Travessa de Estevão Galhardo, in the proximity of the Hotel Universal (in the old Barcelinhos Palace, later the Chiado warehouses). The space is successively operated within the upper floors of the building, while a shop (operated by Ramiro Leão) functioned on the main floor. the Brasileira became a heavily transited café. It was during the nascent Republic that numerous intellectuals, artists and literary writers began to walk through its doors. United by the poet-General Henrique Rosa (the adoptive uncle of Fernando Pessoa), many of the literary figures would help to establish the magazine Orpheu. Between 1950–1960 the Brasileira was in risk of closing permanently.
By 1993, the café had weathered its mid-century financial problems, and had applied for funds from the Lisboa 94 Capital Europeia da Cultura program to remodel and restore the building.
Architecture
sits permanently outside
Exterior
The building is a narrow, two-floor rectangular plan (main floor and basement), with a front façade that includes the establishment name A Brasileira and respective address number. The narrow façade with a differentiated decoration, includes many polychromatic elements: an arched cement façade with inlaid windows; with two reclined figures on either end of the curves; a geometric, cornice-like entranceway with three separate double-doors (the central access being the largest), fronting onto Rua Garrett; and ornate handles and fixtures. Below the boilerplate, in relief, is the figure of a man taking a coffee, surrounded by curvilinear flourishments.
Interior
The long narrow hall includes mosaicked floors in alternating marble tiles (in black and white), a roof with ornamental friezes and square pillars along the walls, also decorated in sculpted wood. The room itself is painted in ochres, golds and reds, with brass fixtures intermingling with sculpted red woods. Between the pillars are mirrors, while at the far end of the café is a clock encased in a wooden decoration. The counter, is located on the right wall of the entranceway, while a staircase provides access to the kitchen located in the basement.
Culture
It was a favored haunt of intellectuals and academics, including Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, the writers Aquilino Ribeiro and Alfredo Pimenta. Fernando Pessoa would regularly enjoy absinthe and a sweet bica, while he continuously smoked, read or wrote. Over its storied history and because of the initiative of José Pacheco, the walls of the Brasileira collected prominent paintings from artists. In 1925, the Brasileira began to exhibit the paintings of the new generation of Portuguese painters, that frequented the café: José de Almada Negreiros, António Soares, Eduardo Viana, Jorge Barradas, Bernardo Marques, José Pacheko and Stuart Carvalhais. These works were eventually sold to one buyer in 1969.
This "museum" was renovated in 1971, with new paintings from painters of the epoch: António Palolo, Carlos Calvet, Eduardo Nery, Fernando Azevedo, João Hogan, João Vieira, Joaquim Rodrigo, Manuel Baptista, Nikias Skapinakis, Noronha da Costa and Vespeira. A bronze statue of Fernando Pessoa, by sculptor Lagoa Henriques, was eventually placed outside the café in 1988, even though Pessoa considered the Café Martinho da Arcada (on the Praça do Comércio, founded in 1782), as his favorite café. The University of Lisbon's Faculdade de Belas-Artes () is located within the Chiado district, and its approximately 1300 students transit the quarter regularly, competing with tourists for open-air tables.
See also
* Jorge Melício, hyperrealistic artist, contributed in the looks of the café with his painting * Café A Brasileira (Braga)