Lisbon Documentaries

Some months ago I wrote about how a lovely city Lisbon is. I've recently watched 2 pretty interesting documentaries showing 2 complementary views of the city, and I've thought that it would be nice to share them here.

DW (Deutsche Welt) has some excellent documentaries in English, dealing with a broad range of topics: social, politics, technology, travel... This one shows a really interesting portrait of life in Lisbon. It's from 2013 I think, which seems to me like the time when Lisbon was starting to become a trendy city attracting foreigners not just for regular vacation, but for longer/permanent stays. In some of the amazing panoramas one can see some construction cranes, but little to do with the huge number of them that I could see last November. I really enjoy when I see in films or documentaries places that occupy a place in the memories of my heart, and this documentary has quite a few of them.

This one from 2018 by BBC puts its focus on the artistic side of the city and how it has been modelled by the Portuguese history. I share with the female host the fascination with the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos and its Manueline gothic. I remember how amazed and excited I felt in my first time there. On the other side, though I understand that they want to focus on Portuguese art, I find it hard to believe that their filming in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga has not included any reference to the most amazing work located there, the Temptation of Saint Anthony. For sure Hieronymus Bosch has little to do with the History of Portugal, but any art lover visiting Lisbon should not miss spending quite a while in front of this heartbreaking Triptych.