The Inheritance
Padrão dos Descobrimentos is Lisbon's cherished landmark. It's located in the northern bank of the Tagus River estuary, and it's the very spot where galleons would depart and sail in uncharted waters. Perhaps visitors would need to do a research on Pêro da Covilhã and the other figures in the monument. It's the only way to know the importance of the place, when Portugal is on top of the world.
Portugal Day, celebrated annually on June 10, revolves around the Age of Discovery. It's the nation's hour under the sun, where its legacy would be traced to the time when the likes of Vasco da Gama searched for new lands. Luís de Camões's "Os Lusíadas" recounted the ambitious plans and heroic deeds:
"Here seems the King so high to soar away,
that touched his head the nearest primal Sphere,
where worlds of vision 'neath his glances lay,
nations of vasty numbers, strange and fere."
Some would point out that Portugal's past would go back to its prehistoric period, when Celts arrived in the Iberian coast. They were right, but the Portuguese Age of Discovery could be compared to Athens under Pericles (or the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great). Portugal wasn't the same after the decline of the empire. It was inevitable that other kingdoms in Europe would discover more lands, but it was a series of political instabilities that made Portugal unable to capture her former glory. But the likes of Camões don't mind. He might not have wanted it any other way, as his works prompted historians and literary critics to compare him to Shakespeare.
But the hills are not alive
Tourists who have been to Lisbon, the national capital, would bemoan the cultural scene. It wasn’t as interesting as Paris. They would even add that the historic center don't offer something that would make them hook for hours. Perhaps it wasn't right to compare Lisbon with the other major cities in the continent.
It would be proper to talk about José Saramago, the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. But the native of Azinhaga is good enough for another post. How about Lisbon? Here are three interesting titles:
Erich Maria Remarque's "The Night in Lisbon" (1962) is a harrowing story of German refugees in the Portuguese capital during World War II. The author zooms into two Germans who would share stories. Readers will unable to determine if it's real or not, if it's about them or someone else. It might have been set in Lisbon, where they're in a nostalgic mood.
José Maria de Eça de Queiroz's "The Crime of Padre Amaro" (1875) was greeted with controversy after its publication. It wasn't the titular character's fall from grace, which was an open secret. It was rather the sexual frustration and the venal habits of the inhabitants that would make readers indignant. But the Marquis de Sade would wink.
Kingsley Amis's "I Like It Here" (1958) was a writer's musing of what was like to be away from home. Readers would identify it as the author's alter ego, searching for a reclusive writer who might enlighten him. He find his answers in Portugal. This won't be a coincidence, as the country's past would provide hints. A rewarding experience, like what a real traveling would do.
