O Fado Restaurant

Music: Coimbra Fado

Coimbra is a venerable university town, known for its intellectual climate and artistic refinement. Coimbra Fado has consequently attracted a more effete audience than Lisbon Fado, where the music has always found its greatest support among the working class.

Coimbra Fado is certainly more stylized than that of Lisbon, and the poetic component of the music is quite excellent. Interestingly, Coimbra Fado is mainly the product of male artists such as Artur Paredes, Carlos Paredes, José “Zeca” Afonso, José Mário Branco, Júlio Pereira, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Jose Joaoquim Cavalheiro, Lucos Junot and Edmundo de Bettancourt.

The love songs, which were sung by a man to a woman, seem to find kinship in the Fado of Coimbra, where the students intone their songs beneath the window of the loved one - the utterly beautiful serenades.

Recipe: Arroz Doce (Sweet Rice)

Arroz Doce is traditional from Coimbra. Unlike in other countries, this rice pudding is cooked entirely on top of the stove in a risotto like manner. Has a voluptuous texture but is lower in fat making it a perfect desert for ladies.

It is literally at the table of every festivity in Portugal.

Ingredients

2 cups water
1 cup white rice
2 cups hot milk (whole works best)
1 cup sugar
1 fresh lemon rind (use a vegetable peeler for big pieces for easier removal)
1 egg yolk (optional)

Topping cinnamon

Directions

1-     Bring the water and milk together to boil in the pot, along with a cinnamon stick and lemon rind.
2-     Add rice and cover, simmering for 20 minutes.
3-     Add sugar, stirring constantly until thickened to oatmeal consistency, about 15-20 minutes.
4-     It will also thicken some while cooling.
5-     In the northern part of Portugal one egg yolk is also added.
6-     Pour into one large serving plate and remove lemon rind.
7-     Spread flat and allow cooling on wire rack or put directly on small desert bowls.
8-     You can be decorative with cinnamon by pinching a bit between your fingers and place while your hand is no more than an inch away from the rice (criss cross patterns are traditional), or you can just dust the entire top with the cinnamon.

Tourist Circuit: Coimbra

In terms of historic significance and romantic beauty, Coimbra is second only to Lisbon and Oporto. Its ancient buildings cling to the side of the hill that rises above the curves of the river Mondego, the ornate buildings of the famous University of Coimbra are its crowning glory.

Indeed the university is still the lifeblood of the city. Reputed to be the second oldest in the world, the Universidade de Coimbra opened it doors in 1290 and has produced many nationally and globally acclaimed academics. Its traditions stand strong and it is still commonplace for students to don black capes and coloured ribbons denoting their faculty. 

Coimbra Fado has its own distinctive flavour, renowned for being more melancholy and having complex lyrics. Caped bards of the university, known collectively as the Tuna Académica often perform such concerts. 

Beyond the university, Coimbra has much else to offer the visitor not least an array of medieval churches. Accessing the old part of the city through the Arco de Almedina, we find two cathedrals known as Se Velha (old) and Se Nova (new) referring to their respective ages, and though the ‘new’ one dates back to the 17th century its senior was founded in 1170. The Igreja da Santa Cruz is a perfect example of more elaborate architecture. Much of the Manueline style it boasts, which replaced the original Romanesque features dating from its founding in the eleven hundreds, are the product of serious remodelling in the early 16th century.

For the romantics among us, the Quinta das Lagrimas is an attraction as it was here, the Camões poem tells us, that the tragic love story of Portugal – that of Dom Pedro and his Spanish mistress Inês de Castro – took place in the 13 hundreds. The Portuguese ‘Juliet’ was reputedly killed in these gardens on the orders of the disapproving King, father of Dom Pedro. Distraught, the young prince made his courtiers kiss the hand of the beautiful young corpse.

Coimbra also boasts the largest botanical gardens in the whole of Portugal and one of the most beautiful in Europe. The 13 hectares of garden dedicated to the study and protection of plants and wildlife is linked to the Natural History Museum and was established in the late 18th century.

Another unique attraction in the town is the Lilliputian-like world of Portugal dos Pequenitos in which houses from every corner of the country and beyond are recreated in miniature. The fascinating collection includes palaces, castles, a Brazilian pavilion and a replica of the 16th century House of Diamonds from Lisbon.

A dozen kilometres outside of the city (accessible by local bus), the excavated ruins of the Roman town of Conimbriga are excellently presented.

Literature: Luís de Camões

Luís Vaz de Camões (1524?-1580) is the greatest figure in Portuguese literature.

Born of a poor family, Camões gained wide familiarity with classic literature supposedly at the Univ. of Coimbra.
It is thought that he fell in love with a lady of the Lisbon court, Dona Caterina de Ataíde, who became the inspiration for his fiery love poems. Banished from court in 1546 because of this romance, he served as a soldier in a Moroccan campaign, where he lost an eye. After his return from Africa he was imprisoned in 1552 for wounding a minor court aide in a street fight. He was released the next year after consenting to serve in India.

Apparently he had already begun his most celebrated work, Os Lusiadas (1572) but this journey may have caused him to make Vasco da Gama’s voyage over the same route the central theme of his epic.
After fighting in India, Camões was given an official post at Macao in China. In 1558 charges were brought against him for maladministration at Macao, and he was put aboard a ship for Goa in India. The ship was wrecked, but he managed to save his manuscript for Os Lusiadas, and he returned to Portugal in 1570 by way of Mozambique.

The publication of his epic won him a meagre royal pension, and his work began to enjoy world fame. By 1655 it had appeared in English in a version by Sir Richard Fanshawe. Although modelled on Vergil and showing the influence of Ariosto, it is imitative of neither and is a great epic in its own right.

The beauty of its poetry is enlivened by a vigorous and realistic narrative that embraces not only the voyage of Vasco da Gama but also much of Portuguese history.
Apart from The Lusiads, however, Camões’s flawlessly crafted sonnets and lyrics would have won him lasting fame.