Museums and Palaces

In 1993, Lisbon Council founded the Casa Fernando Pessoa in the building in which the poet lived during the last years of his life. Fernando Pessoa is regarded as one of the world's greatest poets.

The aim of this institution is to encourage the study of the author's works and to promote artistic creation, turning the site into a real House of Poetry.

In this house you can see Fernando Pessoa's spectacles, a first edition of his book "Mensagem" ("Message") and the original of a handwritten letter sent by Pessoa to António Ferro, a figure in Portuguese culture in the 1930s.

Some Fernando Pessoa experts and the Italian architect Daniela Ermano redesigned the house, keeping the original façade and adapting the building to its new role. The only space that still has its original furniture is the poet's bedroom.

Researchers from all over the world seek out the house, which has an excellent library of Pessoa's works and international poetry, and is used for art exhibitions and extensive editorial activity.

A Pessoan Itinerary:
in the morning, visit the Casa Fernando Pessoa. Then go on to the Brasileira café in the Chiado, sit down at one of the pavement tables (preferably the one by the statue of the poet), have a coffee and read some poems from "Message".
Then go down to the Praça do Comércio and have lunch at the Café Martinho da Arcada, which Fernando Pessoa frequented for most of his life.