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Portuguese culture, traditions, events, food, and lifestyle stories.

A philharmonic band in blue shirts playing under a glass marquee at a concert in Povoa de Lanhoso, northern Portugal

Portugal's Arts Agency Funds 77 Music and Opera Projects and Turns Away 131 That Qualified, Because the Money Ran Out

DGArtes is spending 2.195 million euros on 72 music and five opera projects, most of them in the Norte and the Centro. Of 222 applications, 131 cleared the eligibility bar and still got nothing, the same pattern as every other call in this year's programme.

The Portugal Brief 22 Sep 2026

Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro's 1885 painting O Grupo do Leão, a group of artists and writers gathered around a long table in muted browns and greys

Two Painted Pilasters Stood in a Caramulo Garage for Seventy Years. Specialists Say the Painter Was Columbano.

The family of Abel Lacerda, who founded the Museu do Caramulo, lifted a cover in the garage of his house and found decorative painting underneath. The curator Pedro Lapa places the work beside the panels in the Hotel da Lapa.

The Portugal Brief 22 Sep 2026

The Portuguese singer and songwriter Jorge Palma on stage, head bowed towards a microphone, lit in green stage light against a black backdrop

Jorge Palma, Who Left the Conservatory for Rock at Fourteen and Was Paid for His First Single in White Goods, Has Died at 76

The songwriter died in Lisbon on Monday night of a cardiorespiratory arrest. Tributes came from the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Socialist leader, and from a generation that knew the words to everything on one 1991 record.

The Portugal Brief 22 Sep 2026

Traditional Portuguese craft objects on display at Mezio in northern Portugal: black clay pots on a stone shelf, hanging scales, tinware and wooden vessels

Joining a New National Crafts Network Becomes the Condition for Portuguese Arts Funding, and the Draft Rules Are Open for Comment Until 1 October

The government is turning six years of recovery-fund spending on traditional crafts into permanent policy through the Rede Portuguesa Saber Fazer. Membership applications open in October and the first funding call lands before the end of the year.

The Portugal Brief 21 Sep 2026

The lit shopfront of Joalharia do Carmo on Lisbon's Rua do Carmo, with gilded Pratas and Joias lettering, a gold filigree heart above the door and passers-by on the calcada

A 1924 Lisbon Jeweller Takes Its Second Shop Abroad to Paris, After Committing Six Million Euros to Ten Years on Times Square

Joalharia do Carmo opens in Paris within months. Its owner is pushing just two of its thirteen brands abroad, canned fish and filigree, while telling Lusa it plans no expansion at all of its Portuguese network.

The Portugal Brief 19 Sep 2026

The Terreiro do Paço at Vila Viçosa at dusk, the equestrian statue of Dom João IV on its plinth with the marble facade of the Paço Ducal running along the right-hand side

Vila Viçosa's World Heritage Bid Is Sitting in Paris, and a Report Due by December Decides Whether It Reaches Istanbul

Twenty-five years after the idea was first put to the town, and five after the national commission rejected the first attempt, the bid now belongs to the Portuguese State rather than to the council.

The Portugal Brief 19 Sep 2026

The granite keep and crenellated curtain wall of the Castelo de Guimarães seen from below on the grass, with a visitor standing on the wall walk between the merlons.

Paulo Portas Gains Four Names for Portugal's 900th Anniversary, and the Programme for the First Three Years Is Due by December

A museums chief, a publisher, a financier and a writer make up the executive commission named on Friday. The first landmark is the 900th anniversary of the Battle of São Mamede on 24 June 2028, and no budget figure came with the announcement.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

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