Hungary spotted in Portugal’s capital

The capital of Portugal is one of Europe’s most beautiful treasures with its iconic houses, colourful tiles, amazing views, and riversides. Let us now discover some Hungarian contributions to the city you may not know about.

Lisbon has some of the nicest metro stations, a lot of them being decorated with art which sometimes even relates to the name of the station. (For example, Laranjeiras – which means ‘orange trees’ – station is full of huge oranges painted on the walls, which are of course covered with tiles.) It happened to me by accident that on one of my first mornings in Lisbon, while rushing in order not to miss the next metro at Rato (meaning ‘rat’) station, on the southern end of Linha Amarela (yellow line), I caught sight of some familiar words written under a statue of a man. ‘Arpad Szenes’, it said. The metro left, and I had now 12 minutes to find out what this memento of Hungary is doing at my local station.

Árpád Szenes was a Hungarian-Jewish abstract painter who lived between 1897 and 1985. In 1930, he married a Portuguese, similarly abstract painter, Vieira da Silva, with whom he – among other places – lived in Lisbon, too. Their art actually gave birth to a museum you can now visit in Lisbon. 

The permanent exhibition of the Fundação Arpad Szenes / Vieira da Silva is dedicated to the art of the two painters, and the museum also offers temporary exhibitions.