Lisbon Art & Culture

The richness of Portuguese culture is its distinctiveness. Portuguese painting stands out from the Flemish, Spanish or Italian for having better evolved on ceramic tile, and while central Europe is known for its classic composers, Portugal has its own musical style, the fado. There are also two unique architectural styles (the Manueline and the Pombaline) and traditions (such as the monumental gilding and the emblematic pavement design) which have survived over the centuries.
All these are reasons why this is a culture that's largely misunderstood outside the Iberian peninsula, although there are slices of Portugal all over the world, from Asia (Goa, India and Macau, China), to South America (Brazil) and much of Africa thanks to the Portuguese navigators of the Age of Discovery.
Portuguese is the third most-spoken European language in the world (after English and Spanish) and it is with great pleasure and surprise that many are now discovering Portugal's incredibly rich literature (and not just Nobel Prize winner José Saramago or the much-translated Fernando Pessoa).
Portugal (and particularly Lisbon) is also scoring points in contemporary culture, thanks to recognized architects, young designers, a reinvented cuisine, and promising new artists. Here we present some of the works, traditions and personalities you should know when taking a trip through the arts and culture of Lisbon and Portugal.