Written on the walls: Casa Fernando Pessoa

A place dedicated to literature, a meeting point around literature and specifically poetry.

A place dedicated to literature, a meeting point around literature and specifically poetry. In Campo de Ourique, we can find The Literary house of Fernando Pessoa. The place where the author lived in the last fifteen years of his life. From the figure to the literary idea, the walls carry not only his works, but also art from other space and time.

Fernando’s typewriter // Mariana Serrano Clara Riso, the director of Fernando Pessoa’s House since 2014, welcomes us into the author. The visit begins in the highest point of the tree storey building where the exhibition shows the homonym and heteronymous of the author – with the draws of astrological maps he created.

Astrological maps of homonym and heteronymous // MARIANA SERRANO On the second floor we can find a library with the most valuable books that once belonged to Fernando Pessoa and a temporary exposition. There we can find some of the political influences that reached his poetry.

Some of his library possessions // MARIANA SERRANO Bellow that we can find a mockup of the apartment where Fernando Pessoa lived, with some interviews of his niece. There she describes how her uncle used to be, “Estremunhado n'alma” (a passage of the poem “Como é estranho”, which roughly translates to “blurry soul”).

Details of the second floor // MARIANA SERRANO On this floor we can also find the last quote the author ever wrote, in a room covered with paper sheets. Close to the end, we can find the most emotional part of the visit: the authors death bed left “echos to the upcoming poets”. In the words of Clara, “Legacies aren’t inert and silent things, they need to be activated, so the relationship with others can be able to produce meanings."

The last quote of Pessoa, “I Know not what tomorrow will bring” // Mariana Serrano At last, on the ground floor there is a bookshop and, outside, we can find a restaurant ‘Flagrante DeLitro’. Casa Fernando Pessoa is, in the end, a place to feed not only the mind, but also the body. Written by Mariana Serrano. Reporters: Andreia Simão, Mariana Serrano and Paula Suaila Join us at Radiodays Europe - Register Here