There are many reasons for Jews to love Portugal, where a community prospered on and off for more than two millennia before the country even got its name.
Portuguese Jews founded the modern British community in the 18th century, bringing fried fish in their wake, while 20 per cent of the resident population is believed to have Jewish ancestry, thanks to legions who stayed on in the country after the Inquisition as conversos or secretly-practising Marranos.
While there are thriving communities in Porto and other cities, Lisbon is an unparalleled draw for vacationers.
One of the most laid-back and beautiful of all European capitals, it’s a perfect city to explore over a Passover which falls, like this coming one, during the warm days of late April.
This is a significant time to visit; it was a previous late Passover which provoked the massacre of Jews blamed for drought and plague when nearly 100,000 sought refuge in Lisbon in the early days of the Inquisition.
Jewish Memoria in Lisbon (Photo: Américo Simas)
A memorial on the Largo de Sao Domingos commemorates the thousands of Jews massacred on 19 April, 1506, just three days before today’s observant sit down for their own Seder meal.
There is no memorial to similar numbers of refugees more hospitably received and issued with transit visas to escape Nazi persecution nearly half a millennium later, but their story will be told in a Jewish museum being designed for the city by Daniel Libeskind.
This particular capital needs a good four or five days to get a handle on, due to its wealth of neighbourhoods, many of which appear to the visitor to be stacked on top of each other in a series of steep hills.
The good news is that this is a city of astonishingly cheap Uber and taxi fares, so it’s never necessary to actually climb those hills except to enjoy one of the breathtaking vistas around so many corners.
Charming Alfama, the most historic district, is the original Jewish quarter, but today’s modern community was founded in 1913, many levels higher up at the magnificent Shaare Tikva synagogue.
It is at a luxury hotel near here that the Comunidade Israelite de Lisbon (CIL) organises a first night communal Seder with Haggadot in English as well as Hebrew and Portugese — to book, email administrativo@cilisboa.org without delay.
Between river bank and hilltop there is plenty to explore on the flats, including Praca do Rossio, once home to the court of the Inquisition but today a lively hub connecting the old city with the newer, smarter Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon’s answer to the Champs Elysées.
A central and comfortable perch in an area home to elegant hotels and designer boutiques is the surprisingly affordable NH Collection Lisboa Liberdade.
Lisbon at night
It’s right next to a Metro station, the most convenient way to get around Lisbon and, like museum admission, trams, buses and even trains to the beach and nearby Sintra, awash with castles and forests, free to access with the money-saving Llsbon Card.
Party people tend to prefer Chiado or Bairro Alto as a base, adjoining districts of lively streets, restaurants and cafes a stroll from the river Tagus.
The area is home to one of the city’s best hotels, the Bairro Alto, where rooms are small but fancy and a rooftop restaurant offers a charming al fresco venue for dinner, drinks or breakfast.
Not least of the attractions of the hotel’s location (albeit one you will have to wait until after Pesach to enjoy) is Manteigaria, the legendary bakery opposite where locals queue for the best pastel de nata — custard tarts — in the city, and the tram stop outside the hotel from which to board historic route 28, for which tourists queue, needlessly and often fruitlessly, to embark at the terminal.
Pasteis de nata in Lisbon
Although it is higher up the hill and far from the water, it’s hard to beat the attractions of Principe Real as a base.
The main drag, Rua de Escola Politecnica, boasts a fabulous stretch of boutiques, restaurants and bars either side of a lovely park, and a short block from the summit the Palacio Principe Real must be the most beautiful hotel in the city, with fabulous period furnishings and a lovely garden with that rare urban amenity, an outdoor swimming pool.
Despite its name, the Palacio is actually a small family hotel run by a British couple with a real flair for hospitality.
As the ethos of their catering is vegetarian, the observant will be well catered for if choosing to dine in the lovely garden, but it would be a shame to miss Pica-Pau, a buzzy restaurant on the main drag offering plenty of fish and vegetable choices.
The original blue and white tiling in the Palacio’s first-floor living room is a reminder that the great glory of Portuguese decor is its ceramics, and a visit to the Tile Museum is de rigueur to see the best of it.
Other cultural highlights include waterside Belem, home to the Museum of Contemporary Art and a tower declared a Unesco World Heritage Site, the modern, hip and colourful LX Market beneath the 25 April Bridge and the fabulous Gulbenkian Museum, set high on a hill in lovely gardens.
Each is close to an excellent fish restaurant — Belem’s Nunes Real Marisqueira huge, grand and a local favourite — and the newer, hipper and somewhat hidden Lota d’Avila in a residential area above the Gulbenkian.
Some of the best fishy feasts in the Lisbon area are actually to be had outside the city, in the delightful resort of Cascais, which has grown to enjoy a resident Jewish community of its own.
Promenade at Cascais
As well as good beaches, enticing shops, lovely villas, a handsome promenade and a museum devoted to the great British-Portugese painter Paula Rego, Cascais has its own Chabad, which has confirmed in will run a communal Seder this year as in the past in its beautiful Casa Avner Cohen (book at info@chabadportugal.com).
A good solution for the observant could be spending the whole of Passover at the Onyria, a five-star Cascais hotel which will be the subject of glatt kosher takeover this year, although those planning to cater their own Seder in a seaside airbnb can order matzot and a whole range of kosher le Pesach products for delivery from the Portuel Kosher Store at portuel-kosher-portugal.pt
Whether staying in the city or at the beach, be sure to investigate tours of Jewish Lisbon if time allows — more information from Patricia Lustigman, who offers morning tours of the city’s Jewish sites and also has full information about Passover activities at lisbonjewishtours.com
Rooms at Palacio Principe Real from €495, at Bairro Alto from €450 and at NH Collection Lisboa Liberdade from €160
