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Depois Da Francesinha No La Times Agora Guimarães No Ny Times


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The Arts Take Root in Portugal’s ‘Cradle City’

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By CHARLY WILDER

Published: July 22, 2011

THE earthy appeal of Guimarães, Portugal, was plentifully evident during a recent visit to Adega dos Caquinhos, a small, family-run restaurant in the city center. Profanity, served up in the warm, open-throated intonations of this region of northern Portugal, is as much a part of the menu as the veal chop or tripe stew. The matronly but sharp-tongued owner, Augusta Ribeiro, routinely dresses down customers for refusing wine, and once, I was told, she called a man impotent for asking for hot sauce. When I stopped in for lunch with Rui Torrinha, a local cultural organizer, it wasn’t long before he was being harangued for his vegetarianism.

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Portugal, was plentifully evident during a recent visit to Adega dos Caquinhos, a small, family-run restaurant in the city center. Profanity, served up in the warm, open-throated intonations of this region of northern Portugal, is as much a part of the menu as the veal chop or tripe stew. The matronly but sharp-tongued owner, Augusta Ribeiro, routinely dresses down customers for refusing wine, and once, I was told, she called a man impotent for asking for hot sauce. When I stopped in for lunch with Rui Torrinha, a local cultural organizer, it wasn’t long before he was being harangued for his vegetarianism.

It’s this bawdy appeal, as much as the hearty fare, that attracts regulars like Mr. Torrinha and our other companion, Marcos Barbosa. The Lisbon-bred, London-educated Mr. Barbosa, a theater director, moved to Guimarães in 2008 when he was recruited by the Centro Cultural Vila Flor, a cultural center opened in 2005 in a slickly converted 18th-century palace. Bringing him to Guimarães was part of a larger project of cultural regeneration that began some 20 years ago with the extensive rehabilitation of the city’s Unesco-anointed historic center.

Earlier this year, the 37-year-old director and his young company took on a new Portuguese translation of Gregory Burke’s “Gagarin Way,” which depicts a working-class community in a small Scottish city. The play was a success.

“The people here, they speak very roughly,” Mr. Barbosa said. “They saw this in the play, but more notably, they saw how language was changing the way they see things.” Part of the challenge for his company, he said, has been introducing contemporary, avant-garde work — like the innovative choreography of the Lisbon-based sisters Andresa and Lígia Soares — to a local community often more at home at Caquinhos than at Carnegie Hall.

It is this collision of spirited mien and cultural renewal — along with historical riches — that has made Guimarães an exciting destination, culminating in its selection as a 2012 European Capital of Culture. And with half of its inhabitants under 30, it is now one of the youngest cities in Europe. Even as Portugal at large struggles under austerity measures and the looming debt crisis, this “cradle city” is being reborn as a locus of youth and contemporary culture.

Nestled into a valley in the mountainous Minho region some 30 minutes northeast of the seaside city of Porto, Guimarães was the first capital of the burgeoning kingdom of “Portucale.” (Its current motto: “Portugal was born here.”) And, indeed, history is everywhere. Visitors can spend the night in regal 900-year-old pousadas or tour a restored 10th-century castle. The Paço dos Duques de Braganca is an eye-catchingly austere palace — though locals will point out that much of its imperial-Gothic grandeur is a product of a comprehensive 20th-century renovation during the regime of the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

But it’s at dusk that the city comes alive, as Guimarães’s once-decrepit central plazas erupt into activity, ancient ramparts standing sentry over a giant night-life commons. Outdoor seating at bars around Praça da Oliveira and Praça de Santiago fill with tapas-sharing families, professionals, hair-gelled teenagers and part-time bohemians. When the squares die down around 2 a.m., remaining revelers snake down narrow, cobblestone streets and into after-hours spots, like São Mamede, a bar and arts space that hosts concerts, readings and film screenings; and the year-old Projecto, where D.J.’s play punk, new wave and electronic music until 5 or 6 a.m. under a spray of crystal chandeliers.

The sprawling Vila Flor, though, has been at the helm of the city’s awakening, hosting everything from revamped open-air Shakespeare productions to large-scale gigs by foreign indie acts. In November, the center — and much of the city — will be flooded with music of a more virtuosic bent at the 20th edition of the internationally respected Guimarães Jazz Festival.

“There will be music in public places, spontaneous performances,” said Mr. Torrinha, who handles much of the musical programming for Vila Flor. Their goal: “to stimulate people to create.”

Next year, when the European Cultural Capital agenda begins in earnest, this ambition will come further to the fore. One effort will be headed up by Rui Massena, a 38-year-old Porto-based conductor and composer, who will oversee the creation of an 83-musician symphonic orchestra that will perform 14 original commissioned overtures.

“I think what makes something unique is its defects,” said the gregarious Mr. Massena. “What I want is to know the defects of Portugal and to turn them into something priceless.”

Outside the historic center, young creative talent is attempting a similar feat, transforming the city’s semi-derelict industrial zones into hives of artistic enterprise. Guimarães has long been the country’s largest textile-manufacturing hub, but since the early ’90s, cheap overseas labor has lured businesses away from the area, and many factories stand vacant.

One of these buildings is now home to the Center for Arts and Architecture. Opening to the public in October, the center is the brainchild of the architects Ricardo Areias, a Guimarães native, and his wife, Maria Luis Neiva. In 2008, the pair returned from New York, where Mr. Areias studied and later taught at Columbia University, with the goal of opening an arts cooperative similar to places they’d seen develop in Brooklyn. The former mill now has production studios, an architecture library, a screening room, exhibition and rehearsal spaces and a black box theater.

“There are a lot of people who went away and are coming back,” said Mr. Areias, 34. “I don’t know if it’s the Capital of Culture thing, or all the events, but something is happening, and everyone is here.”

The culinary landscape is also changing, and in some unusual spots. From central Guimarães, take a winding 15-minute drive through a snaggled landscape of hillside textile factories, many abandoned, and you reach the restaurant São Gião. Since opening in 2005, its refined take on traditional Portuguese cuisine has earned it a reputation as one of the best restaurants in the north of the country — and the lunch spot for the remaining industrial barons on Guimarães’s periphery. Panoramic windows offer views of wooded slopes and a vineyard that provides the restaurant’s house white: a crisp, slightly effervescent vinho verde.

The menu is made up of elegant small plates, like chilled figs with Iberian ham (“presunto” in Portuguese), as well as regional dishes like succulent oven-roasted kid or “tripas a moda do Porto” — tripe and white bean stew — which is robust and satisfying.

Sophisticated Portuguese fare can also be found in the city center, including at Histórico, which opened a year ago in a smartly renovated 17th-century palace. In the restaurant’s picturesque courtyard, well-maintained middle-aged professionals drink rich Douro wines, listen to live fado music, and dine on bacalhau, or codfish, which is grilled or baked into creamy potato casserole. Another highlight is the alheira, a crusty sausage made from partridge, chicken and bread that was reputedly invented by Jews during the Inquisition in an attempt to pass themselves off as good, pork-loving Catholics.

A taste of old, rough-around-the-edges Guimarães can be found at Cervejaria Martins, a beer joint on stately Toural Square. Morning to night, men sit around the large horseshoe bar among a clutter of ceramic beer mugs and soccer scarves, watching televised bullfights, snacking on fat shrimp and bowls of tremoço beans and downing 90-cent draughts. Not much has changed here since it first opened in 1951; the lighting is unromantic, the beer is Super Bock (the brand most common to Portugal’s north) and the conversation is deliciously unrefined.

Though Guimarães’ newfound cultural prowess is a decided draw, the legions of new visitors headed for the city in the next year — from residents of outlying villages to international cultural stars like the French director Jean-Luc Godard — would be remiss not to experience the provincial charms of spots like Martins. That said, if you’re a vegetarian, it may be advisable to bring your own salad.

IF YOU GO

WHERE TO STAY

Located in the historic center, the 30-room Hotel Toural (Largo António Leite de Carvalho; 351-253-517-184; www.hoteltoural.com) contains a lovely flower-filled courtyard and offers amenities like free Wi-Fi and breakfast. Doubles start at 85 euros, or about $117 at $1.38 to the euro.

Built into a stunning ninth-century monastery, the Pousada de Santa Marinha da Costa (Largo Domingos Leite de Castro; 351-253-511-249; www.pousadas.pt) is easily among the country’s most noteworthy. Immaculately preserved fonts and cloisters complement a lovely terrace with views over the city. High-season rates for a double start at 180 euros.

WHERE TO EAT

Adega dos Caquinhos (Rua Arrochela; 351-253-516-917). Lunch for two is about 25 euros.

São Gião (Rua Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas 56; 351-253-561-853) Dinner for two is about 150 euros.

Histórico (Rua de Val Donas; 351-915-429-700; www.papaboa.pt). Dinner for two is about 50 euros.

WHAT TO DO

Centro Cultural Vila Flor (Avenida D. Afonso Henriques 701; 351-253-424-700; www.ccvf.pt).

Paço dos Duques de Braganca (Rua Conde D. Henrique; 351-253-412-273; pduques.imc-ip.pt). Admission is 4 euros, free on Sundays.

São Mamede (Rua Dr. José Sampaio 17-25; 351-253-547-028; www.saomamede.com).

Projecto (Parque das Hortas; no phone).

Cervejaria Martins (Largo do Toural 33-34; 351-253-416-330).

Guimarães e Tripas à Moda do Porto no NY Times

Francesinha no LA Times

So here’s the phrase to remember when you’re in Oporto. Memorize this: “Uma francesinha, por favor, e uma cerveja bock.”
Edited by Kinas_
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Eles falaram de Évora também. Um amigo meu que estuda em Lisboa foi tomar o pequeno almoço a Évora com a Tuna depois duma noite qualquer (lol) e um fotógrafo do NY Times tava lá e pediu para tirar uma foto e foi publicada há poucos dias. Não se se falaram da cidade ou se simplesmente puseram fotos..mas é bom ver o nosso país ser falado nos EUA :clap:

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