April 14th is National Historic Cafés Day, places of memory and a tribute to the places that make cities

Coffee culture is essentially a European phenomenon, closely linked to the history, evolution and culture of Europe itself. Essayist George Steiner wrote in his book “The Idea of ​​Europe” that cafés are an integral part of European identity.

National Historic Cafés Day, which is celebrated on April 14, recognizes the material and immaterial heritage of Cafés in Portugal, as testimonies of collective memory. They are not just places where we can drink coffee; They are spaces of unquestionable value, icons of the cities where they are located and symbols of the country’s culture and identity.

Over the years, historic cafés such as A Brasileira do Chiado (1905), in Lisbon, Café de Santa Cruz (1923), in Coimbra, Café Vianna (1858), in Braga, Majestic (1921), in Porto, Café Bar S. Gonçalo (1937), in Amarante, Pastelaria Athanásio (1890), in the Azores or Pastelaria Gomes (1925), in Vila Real, have crossed eras. They have resisted the many turbulent periods in history such as the establishment of the Portuguese Republic, the two World Wars, the Estado Novo (Dictatorship), the 1974 revolution, the economic and social upheavals that followed and, more recently, the pandemic caused by Covid 19.

Many of them were frequented by great illustrious figures of the arts: from Fernando Pessoa to Almada Negreiros at A Brasileira, Bissaya Barreto at the Café Santa Cruz, Teixeira de Pascoaes at Café S. Gonçalo, Eça de Queiroz and Camilo Castelo Branco at Café Vianna or J.K. Rowling at the Majestic, the Historic Cafés are also a meeting point for the many anonymous people who seek them out every day for the mystique they create around their History.

There are currently 38 Historic Cafés in Portugal, and they are part of the Historic Cafe Route, a European cultural route of Historic Cafés. In all of them, time passes by itself, as if it did not pass, keeping the stories of other lives on the walls, in the chandeliers and in the furniture.