When Jules Verne Dined at Cais do Sodré and Visited Dafundo (Portugal)

On 5 June 1878, Lisbon welcomed a visitor who seemed to have stepped straight out of one of his own Extraordinary Voyages... Jules Verne arrived on the Tagus aboard his yacht Saint-Michel III, coming from Vigo, accompanied by his brother Paul Verne, Jules Hetzel Jr., who was connected to his publisher, and the former French deputy Raoul Duval.

He had not come as a hurried tourist. He had two days to discover Lisbon and decided to make the most of them in his own way.

That morning, accompanied by the banker Jorge O'Neill, the Lisbon representative of the French company Messageries Maritimes, he visited the French Consulate and the Church of São Roque. After lunch, he met David Corazzi, the Portuguese publisher of his works, at the offices of Empreza Horas Românticas, on Rua da Atalaia, and visited Jorge O'Neill's home, where he was introduced to his family.

By the end of the day came the moment that gives this story its title... Jules Verne went to dinner at the Grand Hotel Central, on Praça Duque da Terceira, beside Cais do Sodré, one of the best-known establishments in nineteenth-century Lisbon, with a wide view over the Tagus.

After dinner, there was still time for the theatre. At Corazzi's invitation, Verne attended the zarzuela La Gallina Ciega at the Recreios Whittoyne. Close to midnight, he returned to the Saint-Michel III, where he spent the night.

The following morning, his companions set off for Sintra. Jules Verne remained in Lisbon. The heat was intense and, as he would later write, his attention was focused on the city itself. Pinheiro Chagas summed up this choice in a particularly memorable phrase... for Verne, “the novelty was Lisbon”.

During that day, Verne received aboard his yacht Captain João de Carvalho Ribeiro Viana, former director of the Arsenal of the Navy. Their conversation centred on books, ships and, naturally, the new Portuguese cruiser Vasco da Gama, which particularly interested the writer. Ribeiro Viana sent him documentation about the ship and received a written acknowledgement from Jules Verne that same day.

In the afternoon, Verne explored the monumental area of Belém, visiting the Belém Tower and the Jerónimos Monastery, in search of the historic Lisbon that had survived the earthquake of 1755.

And once again, it was at the Grand Hotel Central that his stay in the capital would come to an end.

It was there that he met Manuel Pinheiro Chagas, writer, journalist and politician, who was then editor-in-chief of Diário da Manhã. With him were Ramalho Ortigão and Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, three key figures in Portugal's cultural life at the time.

Pinheiro Chagas left us a particularly curious portrait of the French visitor. He described him as an affable man, with a lively and intelligent gaze, his once-blond beard already beginning to turn grey, and recorded the conversation they had. Verne spoke modestly about himself and revealed that he was then working on A Fifteen-Year-Old Captain.

But one issue particularly interested the Portuguese. Faced with the old French tendency to confuse Portugal with Spain, Verne stated that this idea was disappearing in France and that Portugal was already recognised as a nation with a strong individuality, deeply attached to its independence. Portugal's presence at the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition also attracted his attention.

After dinner, Verne also visited Fernando Palha in Dafundo, where he saw his collection of books, works of art and antiquities. Once again, he returned to his yacht to sleep.

At six in the morning on 7 June, the Saint-Michel III left the Tagus, bound for Cádiz.

It was only about 48 hours... yet Jules Verne managed to discover a very particular Lisbon, between the Tagus, writers, journalists, ships, monuments and the rooms of a hotel that, only a few years later, would be immortalised by Eça de Queirós.

For the Grand Hotel Central that welcomed Jules Verne was the same hotel that appears in The Maias. It was in its peristyle that Carlos da Maia first saw Maria Eduarda... and it is curious to think that, when Verne dined there in 1878, that space was already part of the literary Lisbon that Eça would later transform into a setting for his novel. The building of the former hotel still stands today on Praça Duque da Terceira, although the Grand Hotel Central closed in 1919.

Jules Verne left Lisbon by the Tagus as he had arrived... by sea.

And for two days, Lisbon became part of the travel book of his real life.

Paulo Freitas do Amaral

Teacher, historian and author