During the long decades of dictatorship in Portugal (which ended in 1974), most buildings were required to have some kind of "work of art" in its façade. It could be a statue, a painting in it's gate, mosaics or some other similar form of art. I think it actually worked quite well most of the time, and buildings of those years (under fascist rule, just like in Spain or Italy) still look modern and tasteful today. The green building is located in Lisbon's Av. de Roma, and I was testing my Casio's 3x zoom. Look at the statue at the top.
11 comments:
Your on a roll 'M'!
This is very cool. Love the color, angle, everything.
This explains so much, as I've said before I grew up in a very Portuguese populated area of Massachusetts, and A LOT of the houses were painted some "different" color and ALL of them had statues in the yards and lions "standing guard" at the gates. Most houses had huge pillars in front, even on small homes and beautiful stone walls. We would drive through some of the neighborhoods and be amazed at what was being built.
LOL, I had this close friend who lived in my neighborhood C, her dad painted their house the same color as this building, he even painted his car that color!!! It was funny watching a mint green Ford LTD drive down the road :)
K. and B&B., I'm glad you liked it. Wendi, thanks for the insights. I had no idea about it. I'm fascinated to know about the Portuguese in your part of the world - a small world, after all.
Milan, great photo indeed! :)
Wendi, sadly I have to say that many of that people who puts lions standing guard and fountains and Christ statues and saints and stuff like that aren't (or weren't) influenced by Salazar's dictatorship but they are just not that tasteful (with all the due respect!)... while driving to the forgotten Portugal (meaning the inner part of the country) we can find many houses like that...
But I had no ideia they built houses like that abroad... :) Thanks for that insight view! ;)
Metallyptica, you naught girl! :))) Yes, you are correct also, its just the way we are sometimes. I never understood, also, why people cut all the trees around the houses and instead of gardens with grass and flowers, we find cabbage (repolhos, how we say that in English?). The strange thing is that most people who build houses in such way don't even realise they are doing it!
If I understand you correctly your saying how people would rather have vegetable gardens instead of grass and flowers.....thats funny because when my oldest daughter was growing up she would go to her fathers mothers house and complain they didnt have any grass for her to play on becuase it was all "food" you name it they planted it...they also had many many many "animals"....no not your regular cat and dog...they had chickens, pigs, goats, and even a cow in their back yard. Imagine all this in the city!! It was pretty commical at times.
The next time I venture down to that part of the state (I go often, my mom still lives in that area) I am going to snap some photos, I think you will be amazed at the simalarities between there and here :)
Ehehe Wendi, I believe the explanation lies in the fact that a vast majority of the Portuguese emmigration, in the past, came from rural areas and the countryside, and in you part of the world, from the islands of Azores and Madeira - until very recently, not so urbanized places, and where people dedicated their lives to agriculture and farming. Basically, they might have recreated a bit of their roots in their new homes. The population of the cities and the heavily urbanized Portuguese coastline is different, but even here we may find people from the countryside recreating their landscape in the houses of the city.
this building is absolutely great
A arquitectura do Estado Novo sempre me fascinou: simples, sóbria, austera, rigorosamente à imagem do Salazar.
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