THE FAMOUS LISBON CAFÉS

Once it was enough to go inside any of Lisbon’s cafés to get to know the city well. Each and every generation of politicians, artists and writers sat at their tables,  During the mid 19th century, these coffee houses were the meeting places of the privileged and only someone who felt completely at ease with the fashions of the day and the latest literary intrigues would ever be bold enough to enter. The most famous cafés flourishing at the time in the elegant quarter of Chiado, were the Marrare do Polimento (Marrare's Polished-Mosaic Café) and the Café Central. In 1845, two of the most well-known cafés near Rossio (Praça D. João da Câmara) were the Café Suisso (which disappeared in 1954) and Café Martinho (closed down in 1969).

by MARINA TAVARES DIAS

The famous Café Martinho facing the Rossio

train station

(not to mistake with Martinho da Arcada), 

destroyed in 1969, and its successor: yet another bank